Dear Editor,
On June 14, 2010 a highly regrettable incident took place at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. It seems established that the baggage of David Hinds, on departure for the USA, was searched by the CANU section of the law enforcement authorities.
It is well known that under the protection of the rule of law, which the Government of Guyana professes, every outgoing airline passenger has the “right to be searched.”
The perils of travel in the present time are well known. What we suspect and do not accept is the clear singling out of Dr David Hinds, or of any one person on a flight for announcement on the public address system for the attention of CANU, the narcotics enforcers. In normal laid-back times this might suggest that a prime suspect was being ferreted out. In Guyana with opposition spokespersons coming under various forms of state and party directed fire, the incident takes on the appearance of political discrimination.
As CANU has denied that it acted on higher orders, then it is left for CANU to explain how it can justify the cost benefit to the nation of its budget and costs per unit flight. Singling out one passenger suggests not mere suspicion, but suspicion based on hard information. Let us hope that informers, and perhaps fortune-tellers, are paid on a more rational basis
The action against this one passenger stands out because of the whole atmosphere of spite, thuggery, abuse of even legal power and the habitual intimidation that pervades so much of that part of life where the ordinary affairs of people cross lines with the fears and hopes of rulers and hopeful rulers. By all means let CANU do its work, not merely at the international airport, however, where only the powerless may be touched, but at other ports as well.
The resemblance of the present regime and the one before it is hard to ignore. There is no difference in quality.
Before CANU, in the bad old days, hundreds suffered the indignity of the process of income tax clearance, or of simply being taken to the side room and ordered off the flight with passport seized.
Before I could think through this disturbing incident, reports came to light that a conference of the historical institute was interrupted by shows of thuggery directed at columnist Freddie Kissoon’s presentation. This was a creative restaging with new actors of the thuggery at a Women Against Terror All Faith Church Service at St Andrew’s Church in 1981 to protest the previous ruling party’s gun-bullying of women and children.
The public will note the themes that seem to go along with the new thuggery: narcotics and faeces. Whereas Walter Rodney had used the image ‘faeces’ to illustrate the decadence that followed the Burnham Touch, the offenders of the present regime grasp the image.
Not trusting image, they make it active and smear their critics in slander. There is another touch at work and it is not too early to name it. This touch has again invaded and infected all departments of life, from mines to fields and forests, from media to marriage, from stability to accountability, nursery to university, and infant mortality.
I agree with those who continue to call for sanity, alertness and non-violent defence of the rights and dignity of everyone, especially children.
I appeal for peace in Patentia; for fairness to the headmistress who tried reasonably to protect her female students; for the much neglected youth, and for young men born of women to respect themselves and the women of their communities.
Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana
