Dear Editor,
I note with considerable alarm the letter from Tamukke Feminists titled “A mockery of justice system” (SN July 03). It is raw, brims with consternation, filled with poignancy. I salute these women of Guyana for their courageous advocacy, I laud their standing in defense of the weak and vulnerable made into prey by the powerful. There is plenty that the signatories said in their letter, which I agree with; but there is one sentence, a small part of it, that caught my eye, and which brought recoiling.
I disagree strongly with the segment of the sentence that said, “innocent until proven guilty is not as sacred when it is increasingly obvious that it is always coloured by the perceived or actual power one holds in society.” I do not think that I am taking anything out of context in my disagreement over that extract even with more specific reference to “innocent until guilty is not as sacred…” We cross a Rubicon on any occasion that that standard is violated, no matter the circumstances, regardless of the power of the alleged involved, as we have experienced over and over before. Here is why I am so adamant about this.
For when innocent until proven guilty does not hold, then that serves to add to the powers of the political oppressors, When innocent until proven guilty no longer stands as the sacrosanct bridgehead that must never be relinquished, then we have walked right into the diabolical den of the suppressors. There is no greater gift than that could be given to the PPP, and I am certain they will make the fullest use of such a condition, any such related provision.
Thus, I urge the greatest caution of easing away from what has protected through sturm und drang, through good time and not so good. For then it could be the battle axe and boomerang that decapitates, and at the gleeful will in the PPP’s primordial mind. Let us be careful about what we push for, because then it could come to haunt in the worst ways imaginable. Innocent until proven guilty it is, and it must remain that way, come hell or unprecedented, inhuman hardship. We shall overcome. Thanks to the ladies of the Tamukke Feminists group for their care, their heart, and their love for those who can’t help themselves.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
