In a statement last week, the WPA accused the new PPP government, in office for only a month, of already creating a criminal state, establishing racial insecurity and animosity, dismissing “hundreds” of Afro-Guyanese, winking at Indian Guyanese men beating women and children in the public square and seeking sexual favours. These are only a few. It is baffling that with its army of supporters readily able and willing to supply all of this detailed information to the WPA, the party has not noticed the raging inflation that has gripped the nation.
On Thursday last a niece of mine (let’s call her “Vicky,” not her real name) was driving south along Camp Street and turned right into Regent Street. Vicky had been a student abroad for several years. Although she had been back for a few months, she had not yet driven in that area and was unaware that a right turn into Regent Street was prohibited. Vicky did not notice the sign. Two policemen appeared from nowhere, deviously concealed, to be able to pounce on defaulting motorists, and stopped Vicky. After the usual lecture, they invited her out of the car because her grandmother was with her. They told her that they will have to take her down to the police station but that can be avoided if she were to give them $20,000. She returned to the car, reported to her grandmother, who called me.
My first reaction was shock and amazement at the brutal and savage escalation of inflation from $1,000 or at most $2,000 for a minor infraction of the traffic laws to $20,000. I tried rapidly to calculate in my mind the potential cause. Could it be the election of a new government? It couldn’t be because with its hordes of supporters the WPA would have known of the inflation and could not have failed to place the blame squarely at the feet of the dastardly PPP. Could it be the APNU+AFC which the WPA, in the same statement, accused
mysteriously of “synergistic combining external actors with certain internal civil, economic, and political interests?” It couldn’t be because even the WPA, mesmerized by words, doesn’t even understand what it is saying, and APNU+AFC must be equally confused as to know what exactly it is being accused of, much less the hapless policemen, after I had finished with them. Could it be the new oil economy? It couldn’t be because the new Guyana Manager of Exxon, Mr. Alistair Routledge, has threatened to take Exxon’s investment dollars elsewhere so there is some doubt as to whether Guyana will become the new Dubai after all.
It became inconvenient after a while talking to the policemen through my niece, so I agreed to communicate directly with one of them. I asked him why the inflation from ‘lef something’ to ‘lef a motor bike.’ I put the three propositions set out above to him in order to understand where he was coming from. He rejected them all. He said he was not interested in politics. Neither does know who Alistair Routlegde is and what he had threatened to do. He said he didn’t even know what it would mean if Mr. Routledge did what he threatened, after I told him what Mr. Routledge said. He further said he doesn’t know of a country named Dubai or where it is. I prevailed upon him to explain to me the sudden inflationary spiral. He said “Sir, is Covid. I have to buy masks for me and me family and extra soap fuh wash we hand. And food get more expensive.”
I realized that I was dealing with a needy policeman and these can be the most determined, if not aggressive. I decided on evasive techniques. I said that my niece did not have $20,000. He said: “Yes sir, but she is a chinee and all chinee gat money. And if she ain’t gat, she grandmother gat.” (I do have Chinese relatives). Because this logic is irresistible in some minds, with its unfortunate ethnic connotations, it was useless to deny that Chinese people are usually well off. (But Vicky and her grandmother did have the money). I had to devise other evasive techniques. I said they don’t have that kind or money on them. He said: “Sir, they does wuk near here and they don’t live far. I can go to the wuk place or they house.” I told him that would not be possible because they would invite him neither to their workplace nor home. He said: “Sir, well I have to take them down to the station.”
Now frantic, exasperated and with rising anger, I said she will not go willingly and that he will have to arrest her for a minor traffic offence, contrary to several public advisories of his superiors, and that would be a signal to me just as the one given by former Minister of Finance when the no confidence motion was passed. I asked him if he remembered what Mr. Jordan said. He said no. I bellowed in the phone: “WAR BREAK.”
He humbled up and said: “All right, sir, I’ll let her off with a warning.”
(The core story is true but heavily embellished for effect).
