Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 05, 2021 Letters
Dear Editor,
The fire that burned down the Brickdam Police Station on Saturday is cause for more than enough agitation, whatever the source. Almost on the heels of the fire, two related captions following with hours of each other from Demerara Waves on Sunday generated still more concerns. I look at both captions, and offer some thoughts.
The first came at 10:09hrs and was titled, “President Ali hints at political links to Brickdam Police Station fire; slams fire service response as ‘poor’.” Even though it is just a hint, that is an incendiary statement and connection, which will only fuel intense speculations, and intensify just below-the-surface societal tensions. I regret that the president felt it necessary to go in that direction so easily, I would say irresponsibly. According to the Demerara Waves coverage, the basis for President Ali’s “hint” lies in statements uttered at a gathering in New York, where some sharp, combustible statements were uttered. As I see it, there was verbal fire in Brooklyn; a real disastrous one in Brickdam; and last, a reaching one from this country’s head of state. I would have preferred that he did not jump on that nervous warhorse so swiftly; that he give investigators, local and foreign ones, space and occasion to investigate thoroughly; and that he then let the conclusions speak for themselves, wherever such lead.
Frankly, it is bewildering that President Ali moved so smoothly to connect such dangerous dots. It is not helpful, since the whole tragic matter now takes on a hard political edge, and this is with embers still smoking. In deeply polarized Guyana, I have difficulty deciphering the president’s motive in going down this political linkage road so early. Whatever his motive may or may not have been, this leaves us in a terrible place.
For here is a central law enforcement precinct totally destroyed, one that is definitely one of the top two police locations, with what that means for law and order, justice and delaying of it (even thwarting of it), and already we are at loggerheads, or soon to be, over the origins of the fire. Again, this is regrettable. Regarding the “poor” response of the Guyana Fire Service, that has played out before in different places, and speaks for itself, given some of the timings and developments that impacted a meaningful response and overall management of a raging, consuming blaze. This, too, is unfortunate.
Just about two hours later on the Sunday following the fire, at 12:14hrs, the second startling caption came from Demerara Waves, which reported that a “Detainee confesses to burning down Brickdam Police Station.” If a single detainee acting, as reported, out of “frustration” at his longer-than-expected stay in the lockups, could inflict this enormous amount of physical damage with limited makeshift resources, this is frightening. I say this because what occurred on Saturday at Brickdam could be Guyana’s equivalent of a California wildfire, set by one disgruntled arsonist acting alone, and venting frustrations over some pet peeve. I am not going to ask about monitoring, or authenticity of this quick claim, at this time. I simply say that it has a feeling of being a too pat for my liking. With reference to the president’s earlier hint, though this “confession” doesn’t put any fears to rest, it makes him look out of sorts, and guilty of speaking before thinking. Or, in cruder street parlance, losing control of his senses, rushing to judgment (even the mere hint), and politicizing a highly worrying situation. For if we have an under-attack police force, the bulwark of the law, then the floodgates of anarchy could be a small step away. This does not comfort.
On a final note, though the capital city is today more visible in its many modern concrete and steel structures, it is still well-populated with wooden buildings, many of them decades old. If one unhappy detainee can so easily bring down a complex of state buildings, this does not bode well for residents and businesses in wooden buildings. To put more pointedly, it is that a lot of severe damage could be done by lone individuals with any manner of grouses (or passions). And if I were to take this to the limit, to where and what the president alluded to, the possibilities are staggering. This is given the extent of what was said in Brooklyn, and the realities of Georgetown, the nerve and administrative and commercial centers of Guyana. I do hope that it was the detainee and no one and nothing else, as bad as that is by itself.
Yours truly,
GHK Lall
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 29, 2024
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