This cybercrime issue is not just confined to Guyana

Jul 05, 2021 Letters

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Dear Editor,
There is a price to pay for misdemeanors of any type by anyone, but when a public personality, especially one from Parliament, commits not just a peccadillo, but an actual crime, actions must be taken by the relevant authority. The news is very distasteful indeed. It is that “A partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), Member of Parliament (MP), Annette Ferguson, was arrested after a senior member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) made an allegation against her in relation to one of her Facebook posts.”
The gist of the issue is that the GDF rank is claiming that “Ferguson falsely alleged, in a Facebook post, that the said GDF rank will be in charge of a ‘killing squad.” This constitutes a crime, and as such, she was arrested for a breach of the Cybercrime Act 2018.
This cybercrime issue is not just confined to Guyana; it is global and carries serious setbacks.
The legal phrasing is that “Most cybercrime is an attack on information about individuals, corporations, or governments. Although the attacks do not take place on a physical body, they do take place on the personal or corporate virtual body, which is the set of informational attributes that define people and institutions on the Internet.
In other words, in the digital age, our virtual identities are essential elements of everyday life: we are a bundle of numbers and identifiers in multiple computer databases owned by governments and corporations. Cybercrime highlights the centrality of networked computers in our lives, as well as the fragility of such seemingly solid facts as individual identity.” Maybe the import of her illegal act will get to her, even if she never reads this kind of information.
As expected, she denied, when the charge was put to her, by members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), at CID Headquarters at Eve Leary, Kingston, Georgetown.
Right now, the investigation into the matter is ongoing, and when completed, the file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, for legal advice.
This talk from her about the “setting up of Death Squad and Black Clothes groups” is dangerous. It stemmed from the recent presentation, in the Considerations of Financial Paper 2/2021″ during the parliamentary session on June 14, 2021. Details of that debate, from Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, reveal “… that the concept of the Regional Joint Support Teams is a new crime-fighting initiative formulated in April, 2021, and that the supplementary provision for the period ending December 2021 is to “set up” the initiative.”
This is so simple to grasp and has no latent meaning, more so, there is no form of ambiguity in the language employed that can be used to say that a sinister plot was in the making, emanating from the Government.
Minister Gail Teixeira made it abundantly clear that the “Regional Joint Support Teams will not denigrate or usurp the functions of the GDF or the GPF, but is intended to enhance the capacity of the law enforcement agencies in Guyana to fight crime, regardless of the type of crime, with the support of the GDF.” I mean, who goes to Parliament and advertises a government-sponsored crime?
Corporate crime-fighting among nations is a well-established occurrence. In fact, joint global efforts cut across not only the fight against crimes, but in areas of education, disaster, and Medicare, etc. Ms. Annette Ferguson is not on top of the very basics in current affairs.
This Opposition MP went beyond the outlandish. She publicly flaunted, via her Facebook page, that “Exclusive: PPP secures $250million budget to resuscitation Black Clothes Death Squad.” Outrageous indeed! So, as expected, both the Joint Services Coordinating Council (JSCC) and the Ministry of Home Affairs came out in revulsion and “… condemned the Opposition MP’s post and cautioned citizens against the “reckless and irresponsible social commentary.” Trying to defend her, Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon, condemned Ferguson’s arrest, stating that that members of the GPF had arrested Ferguson on false grounds and also called the arrest a clear case of political harassment. Shocking again here that Harmon took this position.
He is a lawyer by training and should know and act differently. However, I am not surprised, as he himself is guilty of this kind of unsubstantiated outburst. I only have to remind readers to check up on what he did when the Covid 19 $25 000 Cash Grant was being distributed, and also what he said about the Sputnik V vaccines.
Yours truly,
Anson Paul

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