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Nov 23, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column
The courts are there to dispense justice and for the man in the streets this is what they do. However, there are some complaints that as one gets higher up the social ladder then the justice system tends to favour the wealthy and those in the government circles.
Indeed, people have seen the wealthy get a mere slap on the wrist for crimes that others have been sent to jail. Take the case of the driver who killed a woman as she was standing on the roadway awaiting transportation home. This driver was drunk and after what seemed a lengthy delay he was charged and granted bail.
The ordinary man, had he attempted to leave the country, would have been detained. At least in the past once a person entered the courts his name was forwarded to the immigration department. But this individual was able to walk through the airport and disappear in a move to escape trial.
I have seen the newspaper reports and I noticed that his aunt is a prominent person in the government and that he lived in a location known as Pradoville II. There have been many like him who continue to elude the arms of justice. Then there are those who are targeted by the government because they adopt a position that appears to run counter to what the government wants or does. Generally, critics fall into this position.
I remember when the Working People’s Alliance was in its heyday. They were specially targeted by the police for all manner of evils against the government. Back then, though, the justice system comprised people who brooked no interference, so if the charge was trivial the judges or magistrates simply let the people go.
I suppose the same thing operates today, but there is the belief that some of the people in the judiciary are reluctant to take decisions against the government. Glenn Lall, through his newspaper, has been one of the critics of the government, and it now seems that he is public enemy number one.
For one, the government instituted charges against him for fraud. A remigrant couple with whom Lall was close, imported two high-end vehicles. The government concluded that the couple could not own the vehicles and because of their relationship with Lall and given Lall’s money, the government decided that Lall used the couple. There was not one iota of evidence to support the charge, but the charges were instituted. Lall is defending himself.
The use of the courts does not end there. The Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority reported that Lall had threatened him. That charge has also been instituted. Lall is to appear in court tomorrow to answer this charge.
The shoe goes on the other foot when Lall reported that the Attorney General had threatened not only him, but his staff at Kaieteur News. To go further, he presented recorded evidence of the threat. Rather than make the Attorney General the target of the investigation, the authorities once more targeted Lall.
In fact, the initial plan was to charge Lall, and that may still be the case. Meanwhile, no action has been taken against the Attorney General. For sure, when John Public sees this he is bound to be cowed. The result is that more and more people would shy away from complaining about the things that bother them at the level of the government.
There are communities that know this very well and they react in strange ways. When there are crimes, to a man the people would tell the authorities that they saw nothing. In short, they clam up. Others would say what they think the authorities want to hear.
This may be the reason why there has not been a mad rush by people to use the crime hotline. Recently, I had cause to ask Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee about the response to the ‘I paid a Bribe’ hotline. He did say that the hotline attracted a few calls, but there has not been the mad rush. For sure, people in this country are in no hurry to embrace officialdom, and for the same reason as exemplified in the Glenn Lall case.
Yet, I like officialdom, because it helps to maintain order in the general scheme of things. The other day I was at the Miami International Airport on my way to the Malvinas or Falklands. I had to get a visa to Chile and I had about an hour to get to the Chilean embassy.
I met one of the airport personnel, might have been security or someone in authority. I simply said that I had a short time to get to the Chilean Embassy. This official walked me to the head of the line and the rest is history.
Would the same thing have happened in Guyana? Perhaps, but I am sure only for someone high up in the social chain.
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