Dear Editor,
I write in response to the recent PPP press conference of Monday last, held by Mr Clement Rohee, whose flippancy was astonishing.
The average Guyanese must be shocked by his recent statements reported in the local media that the explanation for not launching an investigation into Satyadeow Sawh’s murder was that “we didn’t get to it”. He stated that no government “gets” to everything in their manifesto. This argument is a logical fallacy.
Was investigating the countless murders that paralyzed our nation for the first decade of this century just another manifesto promise? Someone in the PPP hierarchy must see the brazenness of this position. This was their own minister.
I would point the finger at Mr Rohee for his pussyfooting around the absence of an inquiry, but a simple check has shown me that Rohee was not even the Minister of Home Affairs in April 2006; it was Ms Gail Teixeira. It seems that Mr Rohee does not even know the limits of his time in office, so no wonder he can’t recollect why there was no inquiry.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and the coalition’s failure to move faster on an inquiry into the Sawh murder and the terror of that era in Guyana’s history, cannot be tolerated for much longer. However, at least it was a coalition manifesto promise. Getting to the bottom of things is taking far too long, and Mr Ramjattan should avoid walking in Mr Rohee’s footsteps.
On a final note, I return to Mr Rohee’s bloviation: why do the local media tolerate such absurd answers to serious questions? Surely our press can do better than to find satisfaction in an answer as hollow as this. Democracy is in the media’s care, and if it is not monitored properly, it will become warped.
Yours faithfully,
Basdeo Ramdhan
