Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 11, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
There have been a number of disturbing details that have since surfaced following the initial hysteria created on social media by Cultural Advisor to the Ministry of Social Cohesion, Mr. Ruel Johnson, concerning allegations of sexual misconduct by Coen Jackson.
From the onset, Mr. Johnson, over a period of four consecutive days, from Friday 17, 2017, to Monday 20, 2017, almost without break, dedicated all of his Facebook page and time to a singular issue – the alleged sexual misconduct of Coen Jackson.
Over this four-day period, Johnson alleged that Jackson’s “victims” ran into the hundreds, spanning a twenty-year career in teaching. Johnson likened his “discovery” to the Boston Catholic Church sex scandal, suggesting that “victims” not only included countless hapless girls, but also extended to boys.
At one point, Johnson even suggested Jackson was frantically seeking to get in touch with “victims” to disrupt any possible prosecution. Johnson did not stop there. He also made the incredible claim that he had in his possession thirty documented cases of “sexual abuse” by Coen Jackson, and that he had turned over “all” he had to the “relevant authorities”.
I believe there is sufficiency of publicly available information on this affair to register serious doubts about the veracity of the claims championed by no other person than Mr. Johnson himself. For one, his claim of having turned over some thirty documented cases of “sexual abuse” to various entities was rubbished by ‘A’ Division Commander, Mr. Marlon Chapman.
In Kaieteur News of Friday 1, 2017, Mr. Chapman was reported to have said: “Well I haven’t gotten anything from the Ministry of Education, except the okay to go ahead with the investigation.”
Clearly, Mr. Johnson lied to the public about his list of thirty “victims”, unless we are to assume that the Ministry of Education, along with all the other ministries he submitted his findings to, was a co-conspirator in a grand cover up of Mr. Jackson’s alleged misconduct; in much the same way Johnson alleges that The Bishops’ High School’s administration has ducked reports about Jackson, over the years.
More to the point, it wasn’t until an entire week had elapsed, and after countless calls by Johnson on his Facebook page for so-called “victims” to come forward, that Johnson’s significant other made a report to the police station about an incident that was alleged to have taken place some six years ago.
What is bizarre about this is that accuser admitted on her own Facebook page on Sunday, November 26, 2017 – one week before Jackson’s arrest – that she and Jackson were friends up until recently. She related that in August of 2017 she received investment advice from Jackson, and that she never saw herself as a victim until she was convinced of it by, you guessed it, Ruel Johnson!
Mr. Editor, above all, consider a most troubling account of one of the alleged victims of Coen Jackson while a student of The Bishops’ High School, whose version of events was conveniently posted by Ruel Johnson on his Facebook page some time between Monday, November 20, 2017 and Wednesday, November 22, 2017.
It reads: “So when I was talking, he was showing me something, I couldn’t see properly, then he held my head and kissed me. I pulled away, I told him to stop and I pushed him away. He put his hands up my skirt and pulled me back, held me down and grabbed my ass. I still have a vivid picture of everything that took place, I wanted to go home. I wanted to shower. I still felt his hands on me, and it’s not easy.”
Now contrast this story with one of the scenes in chapter 12 of the novel, Rennillia, vol. 1, written by American fiction writer, M. Sembera (2011), and played out by, incidentally, a character named Jackson: “ ‘I just want to go home. ‘ Back at the house, I rushed inside. Jackson was right behind me asking if I wanted him to stay. Nodding, I ran up the stairs. I could still feel his hands on me. I wanted to shower and wash all traces of him away. I scrubbed extra hard on my wrist where he touched me and where I felt his breath on my cheek …”
This nexus between Sembera’s Rennillia and the narrative fashioned by the anonymous “victim” was first brought to my attention by Ron G. Morrison, on his Facebook page.
A similar incident, involving another “victim”, was also posted on Johnson’s page, where the events were not dissimilar to the one described in Rennillia, the only difference being that it allegedly took place at another location in the school. This begs the question: How many of Johnson’s self-compiled list of “victims” are also works of fiction?
Yet another instance of what I believe is Johnson’s deliberate manipulation of facts relates to the claim that Jackson was attempting to flee the jurisdiction. This was contradicted when, together with a team of lawyers, Jackson appeared at a press conference to deny the allegations levelled against him. At that presser, Jackson countered that Johnson was motivated by personal reasons.
Given the way Johnson went about this entire episode, including bypassing every structure and authority in place to deal with such issues, and even recommending his own committee to investigate the allegations against the accused, speaks to a mind disturbed and a man driven by personal motivations. Further, that he used his very visible public office to meet his personal end, at a minimum, necessitates an investigation.
Yours truly,
Kevin Anthony
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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