Dear Editor,
After reading Dr. Randolph Persaud’s letter of 2.05.23 in Stabroek News I am driven to paraphrase Bharrat Jagdeo, for it is either I am mad or Dr. Persaud is to suggest that Guyanese should be so grateful that a National Security Agency is “going through the parliamentary process” and that civil society should accept whatever the provisions are on grounds of ‘National Security’; I believe Dr. Persaud will find that dog-whistle term less effective here than the shores of America.
The bill is deeply flawed, the Bar Association head has pointed out where it affects the sacred trust of ‘client confidentiality’; but let me point out a few more, when the CIA was formed in 1947 it was forbidden by charter to spy on Americans, this of course was disregarded completely and thoroughly exposed by the infamous ‘Operation Chaos’; it is the nature of the beast. Our Bill does not even make a pretence that it will not spy on citizens domestic and foreign. The Bill defines a ‘National Security Threat’ as anything that disrupts the ‘stability’ of any sector of Guyana, given that the Agency will be under the sole direction of the President of the Nation, can we foresee a day where strike action by unions for example, could be considered ‘destabilizing’? I can think of many other instances of current normalcy that could be construed as ‘destabilizing’. Guyanese know our history of politicians with unfettered power has not been without dire consequences and it has inculcated caution in our very DNA as a people.
Editor, I say ‘Unfettered’ because the safeguards contained in this bill vaunted by the Minister of Legal Affairs will simply become a quagmire of bureaucracy, and ‘national security’ will be chanted until the complainant is made to feel like a traitor. Our national ‘safeguards’ never really work anyways, look at the Natural Resource Fund, One President wanted to spend none of it, and the next spent all, leaving behind an empty account and a mathematical formula for a ‘Board’ to ‘watchman’. So, No Dr. Randy, while I am all for a secure nation and a protected population, I am not insane nor willing to blindly accept, much less be grateful for the NISA Bill in its current iteration, in the meanwhile, the government can spy on us the old-fashioned way, from a distance and with binoculars.
Sincerely,
Robin Singh
