Dear Editor,

There we go again!  I never heard of Ms van Beek before the Clico affair, but I deplore the vicious attack on her life.

The gun has become a form of argument largely because there is a thoughtless and shortsighted habit of excusing it once it is on our side. This kind of attitude over time can become a widespread mental ailment.

I at once noted three kindred things in the report about the fatal shooting of Minister Vincent Teekah, which I now share for the sake of history. The official version said that Minister Teekah was shot in his car at a stoplight, but at night, not in the morning. In the passenger’s seat was a foreign female passenger. His leader called the act an “assassination.” No suspect ever came to light.

Next, the only attack on my earthly presence that I am certain of took place during a shower of rain in the early morning of March 23, 1992 when a man of my own race with a real or pretended

‘American’ accent jeered at me as I walked in the rain and then, coming up behind had his hands on my throat feeling about like a surgeon. I passed out briefly, a new experience, barely hearing an Indian householder shouting at the man from his window.  There was no attempt at robbery. The thirty-five dollars in my rice bag was intact. The day was the 50th anniversary of Walter Rodney’s birth.

I had a hunch which political figure had ordered the attempt, but without evidence did not express it. Because of the kick-down-the-door atmosphere, I did not ask the eyewitness for a statement. A doctor told me later (as I recall) the offender might have been trying to find my thyroid artery.

The three connections are rain, a stop due to traffic, and an absence of an attempt at robbery.

The attack on the woman official does not flatter our society.

Was it a citizen who had something to say, but no way of saying it but by the gun? Was it a paid assassin? Could it arise out of something she said in the court?

One man from anywhere in town has now stained a whole street.

Needless to say, this attempt seems to fit one pattern rather than the other. Could it be an execution type attempt?

The public should know that the CID usually knows the footprint of a crime. One thing they know is styles of operation, as a first working clue.  The attack on Ms van Beek was a public incident. The police have no excuse, nowhere to hide. It demands instant use of crime detection means.

Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana