Dear Editor,
I note with mixed feelings the recent PPP media release on the seventh death anniversary of Minister Satyadeo Sawh and his relatives (and security guard, who seems to have been overlooked in reports).
The Minister’s death was a heavy blow to the collective Guyanese psyche – a message that everyone is vulnerable, that no one is truly safe, and that the words of Martin Carter will always ring true – “all are involved, all are consumed.” With the murder of such a high-ranking government official, the nation was put on red alert back in 2006, and results were expected.
In that period of great national difficulty, those in power wailed for justice and promised as much. The death of a sitting member of the cabinet and central committee member of the party would have to be solved in a few days, or weeks at most. Months, maybe? A year? Make that 7 years – it’s 2013, and Guyana is still waiting.
The nature of the anniversary statement was one of sadness on one hand and disgust with the parliamentary budget gridlock on the other, with a heavy dose of political bashing to top it all off. This is not wholly surprising, given that the budget battles are foremost in the minds of most at this point in time, and that politics are, for all intents and purposes, politics.
What irritates me, as someone who has noted with nausea the lack of results on Minister Sawh’s murder, is that not one peep was made about the state of investigations.
Is the matter closed? Declarations of knowing who the ‘intellectual authors’ were came loudly in the immediate wake of the tragedy – seven years on, and this matter still rests on the tall pile of ‘unsolved mysteries’ at Eve Leary and the Ministry of Home Affairs. For the PPP not to say anything about the ubiquitous ‘What happened?’ question just rankles my core because it indicates to the nation that they simply do not care, and that they have become so complacent that a matter as devastating as this does not bear the trouble of being brought up.
Maybe this is too much to ask our authorities, but can someone, anyone, say anything constructive here? No murder is more pressing than another, but the stakes in this one are so high that it stings a little bit more. Editor, our nation needs an answer.
2016 will mark a decade since everyone awoke to the harrowing news of a Minister being slain Hollywood horror-movie style.
Yours faithfully,
S T Persaud
