Why has the Pegasus not been given a gambling licence?

Dear Editor,

I have been reading about the matter surrounding the issuance of a casino gambling licence to a hotel on Church Street. Numerous questions have been raised about the unsuitability of the area, the parking problem, and the manner in which the gambling licence was issued first to one party, then to some other party, and the fact that this licence was a football during the PPP’S time in office.

There were shenanigans under the last administration, and I specifically allude to the issuance of the 12 radio licences in violation of our law, and equally legally binding agreements which Mr Jagdeo signed first with Mr Desmond Hoyte in the Dialogue and then with Mr Robert Corbin in the Communiqué “that no new licences will be granted until the establishment of an impartial Broadcast authority”

Mr Jacob Rambarran has brought a case against the Government of Guyana on the issuance of the 12 radio licences and received an unsatisfactory decision from the Supreme Court and filed this matter in the Appeal Court over a year ago which is yet to be heard. This case has the capacity to resolve many matters concerning the actions of our presidents violating the law in numerous instances, simply because they believe that they are immune from the consequences of it.

Whatever else we might have said about Justice Chang and his decisions, he at least gave them fearlessly and he did so expeditiously.

He did not deny justice to any Guyanese since he gave his decisions quickly so that the appeals could be expedited. Since I am in many ways still an investigative reporter, I found this on the internet: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Although it is a standard reference and has become a late-twentieth-century maxim, I found it in an 1868 speech by British Prime Minister William E Gladstone and in an 1842 issue of the Louisiana Law Journal. According to the last Bill Mr Doodnauth Singh presented to the Guyana Parliament as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, decisions must be given by our judges no later than 3 months after the matter has been presented in its entirety before any judge.

I am however writing today to point out a gross miscarriage of justice and to plead the case for the Guyana Pegasus. Since Independence the Guyana Pegasus has stood as an edifice of pride for most Guyanese and has gone through the smooth and the rough times with us as a nation as we passed through numerous ups and downs. All through those dark days the Guyana Pegasus served us well and still continues to do so, and therefore I am forced to ask in the interests of justice, why they have not been given a casino licence. If any hotel deserves such a licence to boost its income as a reward for staying the course with us, it would be the Pegasus.

Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira