Latest update March 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 03, 2013 Letters
Dear Editor,
Reading the SN article caption “Nappi Resident calls for an end to police harassment” is just a timely reminder that law and order have all but broken down in Guyana. While the nation is now a domestic war zone between criminals and law-abiding citizens, on top of that the law-abiding citizens also have to contend with the corrupt policemen in the Police Force.
Since the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal assumed power in December 2011, there was a clear strategy to foster a breakdown of law and order at the white collar level because of failures by the PPP regime to develop an anti-crime policy. Today, the cancer of white collar crime has migrated to the blue collar level in the State where police officers are now empowered to charge citizens the “fry rice tax” every day by abusing their authority.
Every hour of every day one can find several police road blocks on the Corentyne highway and the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara highways with the official excuse that it is design to catch criminals but the real intention is not to fight crime but to stop drivers to collect money for “fry rice or the box hand.”
The police do not stop Prados or Hummers or any of the luxury vehicles belonging to the members of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal, so clearly the ruling cabal does not have a clue of the perpetual harassment that the poor and the working class endured each day to pay the “fried rice or box hand” tax to fund the life style of those corrupt members of the Guyana Police Force. The culture is so corrupt in Guyana that One Policeman told one of our sources “if the big ones can tek millions from the Treasury and get away scotch free, why can’t we tek abe small piece from the drivers.” It appears to us that corruption and fraud are the way forward for Guyana since the incompetent minority cabal is busy fighting with the majority opposition to reinstate Rohee’s right to speak in the Parliament. The PPP knows it cannot win this battle, yet it has refused to give up and instead is wasting the taxpayers’ money on a dead issue.
But to expose this attitude of barefacedness in Guyana, evidence of corruption has been presented to the executive for action only to be told that it will not stand up in court. Also, the corrupt policemen know that the Police will not investigate the Police, and even when there is enough evidence to prosecute, the police prosecutor will botch-up the case in court and the magistrate will have no other choice but to throw the case out, thus allowing the police officers to continue the road block in order to collect more “fry rice and box hand money.” It is time for Commissioner to end this corrupt and illegal practice and stop pretending that he does not know what is going on with his subordinates in the police force.
There is no shortage of laws in Guyana but until these laws are enforced; we shall continue to suffer from official banditry. It was the Roman Philosopher–Cornelius Tacitus who said “the more corrupt the Republic the more numerous the laws.” Rohee should heed this statement and weed out the corrupt police officers instead of making the foolish and cosmetic change of name for the force. Is this all he can do?
Because of the actions of senior members of the corrupt and barefaced Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal and members of the Police Force, the prestige of the government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws rather than having people in positions of power that have no respect for other people rights and for the rule of law.
It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this corrupt leadership under the Jagdeo / Ramotar cabal and that has filtered down to an increasingly banditos attitude in most office of officialdom.
So to the residents of Nappi in the Rupununi, your brothers and sisters on the coast land and other hinterland communities face this music every single day at every conceivable hour and you must know that your complaint is heard by the Alliance for Change (AFC) but until you vote the PPP out of office; baton down for more police harassment, more road blocks and more demands for “fry rice and box hand taxes.” Remember this when you cast your next ballot.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
Mar 19, 2024
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