In their ruling in the case of Trinidad Cement Limited and TCL Guyana Incorporated versus the State of Guyana, the justices of the CCJ said it was important that a coercive order be issued against Georgetown for the re-imposition of the CET on cement in the interest of the rule of law in the single market.
So dismayed the court appeared to be at the extent of Guyana’s default on its obligations that the CCJ said there were clear grounds for the award of damages once the claimants could prove their case which fortunately for Guyana they were unable to do. Guyana, the court implied, had endangered the rule of law by not following the laid out procedures for a suspension of the tariff to wit an approach to the Council on Trade and Economic Development. Indeed, Guyana had previously recognized the necessity for this by complaining in the past about fellow Caricom states unilaterally deciding not to apply the CET in relation to goods that Guyana was capable of supplying.
The court’s alighting on the rule of law has great relevance and resonance here considering the daily impositions on it in every sphere of national life. As if to bring it into even sharper focus, the country is now trying to come to grips with the shocking revelations that three coast guardsmen were engaged in the abduction of a gold dealer, Mr Dweive Kant Ramdass, his murder and the theft of $17M while on patrol in the Essequibo River. To make matters worse, two policemen are now suspected of having stolen some of the $17M which was recovered from the coast guard personnel and one of their relatives.
It is a most horrendous development but not way out of kilter with the condition of the security sector and the recent abominations it has been associated with. The grab and murder is just the latest in a series of scandals to have plagued the joint services. The deeply troubling reality is that no cauterizing of this menace is possible as the government has been seriously compromised in terms of its willingness to investigate flagrant breaches of misconduct in the forces.
The list is too long to enumerate. If one were to start with the disappearance of 30 AK-47s at Camp Ayanganna and to work through the list of tortures conducted at the hands of the joint services and detour to the plausible intersections between the joint services and the death squads under the direction of self-admitted drug lord Roger Khan and others, a clearer picture of the degeneration will be evident.
This list would not, of course, be complete without reference to Lindo Creek. The murder last year of eight miners at Lindo Creek by yet unknown marauders continues to be a corrosive conundrum. From the outset it had been alleged that rogue elements of the Joint Services aware that minerals were being harvested had attacked the camp and to obliterate the evidence of their crime had set fire to the bodies of their victims.
The government’s immediate spurning of such a possibility and construction of a still implausible scenario that implicated the apparently ubiquitous and omnipotent `Fineman’ hinted at a cover-up of what would have been an exceedingly damaging blow to the credibility of the joint services and the morale of the country at the time. The absence of a magisterial investigation of these killings, the year-long hiatus of DNA testing of the remains, the ignoring of mobile phone evidence that could have led to the killers and the cavalier state in which the murder scene was left signalled a long time ago that the government and Joint Services were not interested in a sweeping investigation of this matter.
Had Thursday’s robbery and murder of the gold dealer occurred in a remote part of the country it is highly likely that a trail leading away from the Joint Services would have been skilfully laid. It was not possible this time as the taking of the gold dealer happened in broad daylight and in the full view of many. The soldiers were caught redhanded. Has impunity in the joint services reached such a dangerous stage that citizens can be seized and murdered in this manner?
Thursday’s events are a chilling reminder of how decrepit the law and order edifice in this country has become. Let the law take its course and the army conduct its own inquiry but this gruesome development also warrants nothing less than a full and comprehensive investigation that involves civil society and independents. Too many of these investigations have been left in the hands of the security services and the state only to be subverted. In his statement on the incident, army Chief of Staff Best said that there was a “breakdown in the command and leadership of the structure at this unit for which strong administrative action will be taken”. It is noteworthy that Commodore Best had risen through the ranks of the marine wing to his present position and it is sad that those in the coastguard have now brought such shame to it. There was clearly no appreciation of the esprit de corps and this warrants a careful examination of the screening of recruits to the force.
Considering certain parallels with the Lindo case and the many outstanding questions which made a `Fineman’ perpetration unlikely – the burning of the bodies stand out – the government should permit an independent investigation headed up by persons outside of the Joint Services considering the possibility that its members could have been integrally involved.
The longer the government defies attempts to have the evenhanded and fair application of the rule of law the more it invites grotesque instances like Thursday’s. The denial mode that it has switched on in relation to the Simels trial and its revelations is a prime example.
Whether it be cement, the single market, maintenance of security or the prosecution of rogue servicemen the rule of law is pivotal to the preservation of order in all strata of society. Is the government paying attention?
