The rulers of the darkness of the world

Apr 05, 2015 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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President Donald Ramotar has dismissed suggestions that Courtney Crum-Ewing was “assassinated.” Ramotar, addressing a West Berbice Chamber of Commerce meeting on Saturday 21st March, claimed that the People’s Progressive Party Civic had nothing to gain from the killing and described Crum-Ewing as merely a “nuisance.” Crum-Ewing was executed on Tuesday 10th March in the Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, while urging residents to vote against the PPP.
Ramotar said of the dead man, casually, “He was no threat to the PPP…he was no threat to the government…he was a [sic] nuisance value more than anything else. He was spreading a lot of racist talk on his Facebook and all kind of things of that nature he was doing.”
Ramotar went further, contemptuously comparing Crum-Ewing to a wanted man, Linden ‘Blackie’ London, who was executed by the Guyana Police Force in 2000. He said, “They put the Guyana flag on Blackie’s coffin and now they put the flag on this man Crum-Ewing too who they claimed, I don’t know the motive, but they claimed that he was assassinated…political assassination.”
Crum-Ewing, indeed, had been a thorn in the side of the PPP for several months prior to his execution. He came to public prominence last year when he began protesting in front of the office of Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, demanding the Minister’s removal. This followed abusive and repulsive statements attributed to the Minister during a recorded telephone conversation with a Kaieteur News reporter.
Ramotar’s remarks were echoed by former President Bharrat Jagdeo who, on 29th March, suggested that Courtney Crum-Ewing might have been killed to give life to what he called the opposition’s “whisper campaign.” Jagdeo said, rather stupidly, that the murder seemed to be “a military thing” since Crum-Ewing was an ex-soldier and “they want ex-soldiers and policemen to get angry with us [the PPP].”
The comments of the present and past Presidents about a citizen’s execution explain official attitudes to the rate of murders, the state of human safety and the low level of public security in Guyana. The entire nation is alarmed at the rising rate of murders of which there have been over 2,100 over the past 15 years during the two deadly Jagdeo and Ramotar presidencies. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime lists Guyana’s 2010 homicide rate as 18.4 per 100,000 people – the fourth highest murder rate in South America behind Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. Guyana’s murder rate is three times higher than that of the United States.
There has always been a ‘dark’ side to the PPP’s style of governance. Public alarm arose several years ago when the extraordinary relationship existing between an ex-policeman and the then PPP Minister of Home Affairs was uncovered. The subsequent Presidential Commission of Inquiry into allegations that the Minister had been engaged in “activities which involved the extra-judicial killing of persons” in 2005, did not receive credible evidence to enable a finding of ministerial involvement in the killings. The Commission’s Report concluded, however, that the ex-policeman had been actively involved in certain under-cover activities on the Minister’s behalf and that the “close association” which developed between the two was “unhealthy.”
We, the Guyanese people, have become the victims of the “close association” and the “unhealthy” relationship between our rulers and the ‘dark’ forces of the underworld. We are fed up with the PPP and with wickedness of crime. We wrestle against a party that is driving talented citizens to migrate to other countries because of the high rate of crime.  It is written in the Holy Bible, indeed (Ephesians 6:12):
“…we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world; against spiritual wickedness in high places…”
Numerous allegations have been made of the “close association” between criminals and the administration.  The evidence suggests that some ex-policemen had been employed to use their enforcement talents to commit serious crimes, including unlawful killing.
Human life has become cheap under the PPP, the consequence of its chronic failure to enforce laws which protect life, or to ensure that executions, such as that of Courtney Crum-Ewing, are investigated. The Government, which should do most to protect life, unfortunately, has done much to endanger it.
Blame for Guyana’s high level of insecurity, soaring murder rate and escalating ‘emigration’ lies squarely with the nearly 23-year long People’s Progressive Party administration which has failed consistently to implement a comprehensive counter-crime strategy. Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, rather than tackling the causes of murders and criminal violence, has become obsessed with his status as general secretary of the PPP and preoccupied with his Party’s elections campaign.
The 12-year Bharrat Jagdeo presidency, most particularly, will be remembered in this country’s history for the extraordinary number of murders which occurred when “the rulers of the darkness” were rampant. The trend has continued to rise in the three-year Donald Ramotar presidency.
The words so easily expressed by Ramotar and Jagdeo of Courtney Crum-Ewing’s murder eloquently express their party’s philosophy. Those ‘dark’ attitudes are likely to persist as long as the PPP remains in, or if it returns to, office.

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