Mr. Evelyn must know it’s a stupid country with unthinking leadership

Nov 03, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There is a letter carried in the Wednesday edition of the Stabroek News signed by Keith Evelyn. I am assuming it is the insurance guy who had a good working relation with Bharrat Jagdeo, when he was President. Mr. Evelyn has taken objection to the ongoing depravity (my choice of word) of persons being arrested and brought before the courts for overstaying their time in Guyana. He gave some examples that are indeed depraved.
He mentioned the appalling conditions these people were kept in without being specific; no doubt referring to police lock-ups. I can tell Guyana and the world about that. Mark Benschop and I were in the Brickdam remand for three days and nights for a mere traffic offence. The physical conditions were semi-civilized.
Mr. Evelyn did not mention the case of the 14 Nepalese men. They were fined for illegal entry and couldn’t raise the bail and were languishing for months in the Camp Street lock-ups. This was under the presidency of the man who writes frequent letters to the newspapers complaining about rights violations – Donald Ramotar.
The decent thing for any decent government to do was to buy the people’s plane tickets and let them go. But we have neither decent nor thinking leadership in every sphere of life in this country. When I read Mr. Evelyn’s letter, I could not help but wonder why when he was close to President Jagdeo, he didn’t raise the issue of a simple amendment to the law.
Since the PPP administration lost power in 2015, people from foreign lands continue to be charged for overstaying their time and illegal entry, including hungry people from Venezuela.
When I read about these situations, I feel guilty when I laugh. It is a tragedy, and I should know better, but I do laugh. Why would anyone want to take up residence in a country where modern life is absent, technology is very low, medical science is wanting, bureaucratic rules are outdated, university education is barely surviving, the economy offers the lowest wages and salaries across CARICOM minus Haiti, water does not come to the second floor of the houses, blackouts are a daily occurrence; the mere application of the renewal of a driver’s licence takes an entire day; motorists will encounter a bribe-taking traffic cop at least once a day, and the breakdown is ubiquitous?
You cannot help laughing. Are these people crazy? Why do they want to enter illegally or overstay their time in, of all places, Guyana? Interestingly, quite a number of those officials involved in the arrest, charging and sentencing of these accused would gladly leave Guyana if they get a permanent visa to the US, Canada, UK etc. Why not try for more modern and civilized lands. I can easily predict reaction to this column, as I have with my advocacy of harsh sentencing for small grams of marijuana.
People would say that you cannot blame the police and the magistrates. The law compels the police to charge and the magistrate to sentence. It is the leaders that have to make the change. But where is the thinking and capacity to change of our leadership since Independence? There isn’t one leader in the PPP, when they had 23 years of power, that cared about changing the sentencing structure for marijuana possession or for illegal entry and overstaying. There is none in the present APNU-AFC administration.
Let’s revisit the issue of dress code and what President Granger said on the anachronism. He did concede it was an atavistic return to primitive times (my choice of words) in a television interview. But since he made that intonation, the dress code backwardness remains in many public buildings.
Franklin Wilson, a journalist at this newspaper, told me about six weeks ago his wife was turned away at GECOM office in Diamond, because of that silly dress code.
President Granger should have shown leadership and taken the bull by the horns, by letting the country he leads know that the monstrosity of that dress imposition has outlived any usefulness it had, and he would like to see it discontinued. The news would have filtered across the country, and important state officials would have known that the President wants this thing removed.
That obnoxious dress code thing still exists, even though the First Lady loves to don sleeveless dresses like the First Lady of the US. Actually, I love to see my wife in sleeveless dresses. Putting foreigners in putrid lock-ups for overstaying their time is unconscionable. But then again, who has conscience in Guyana?