 |
|
Aug 25, 2002: The Kaieteur News answered that question in its weekend edition. Now even if you did not agree with it when the paper came out on Friday morning, since then events must have caused you to change your mind. Friday there were violent robberies throughout the day, then early Saturday morning came the decisive blow with the open assassination of Superindent Innis that no doubt has definitely changed your mind and you have now agreed with the Kaieteur News. Before I proceed, a few words on Mr. Innis
I first met Mr. Innis when I approached him on behalf of Kaieteur News for his reaction that CANU officials assaulted then had ordered the eviction from CANU head office on Homestretch Avenue of a friend of mine, attorney Vic Puran. Vic had spoken to me on the issue, and I had to speak to Mr. Innis to get his side of the story. Unlike most CANU officials, he was the type that was open to speaking to the press. He told me I couldn't get the interview at the time I made the request since he was about to leave for a funeral but if I come at the parlour, he would speak to me. I turned up, and he gave me his version. He was polite and friendly. He indicated to me that the only reason he was speaking to me was because he trusted me to put his side of the story. I appreciated that and I told him that I would adopt an unusual a journalistic method I would show him my report before I submit it to the paper. I did that and he told me he was satisfied. After this encounter with him, we became familiar with each other and he sought my advice on coming in to UG to study law. A few months ago, he raised the topic again, this time telling me that he was definitely coming to UG.
The Innis assassination and the ubiquity of pathological violence have now made Guyana the most dangerous CARICOM territory. Before this outbreak of sadistic bestiality, Jamaica was the murder capital of the CARICOM region. But even if Jamaica takes the lead over Guyana again, Guyana would still remain the most dangerous CARICOM state. There is a huge difference with what is taking place in Jamaica. In Jamaica, the violence has always been geographically confined. There are about three distinct turfs where murder and mayhem take place with appalling frequency. Secondly, the brutality has two dimensions inter-gang warfare and attacks on the police.
In Guyana, the situation is far more frightening. There are seven dimensions to the violence; (1) like Jamaica, inter-gang warfare in which some well known personalities connected to the underworld have died, (2) vicious attacks on police. (3) the targeting of anyone bearing a firearm for the purpose of stealing the item, (4) special attacks on Indian business people, (5) the lack of deterrence on attacking urban African families, which means a non-traditional area of assault has been added, (6) large-scale attacks on taxi-drivers, (7) there is no time limit to the attacks, in other words whether it is a robbery, assassination of a drug lord, or the targeting of a security official, the perpetrators make no distinction between night and day, and (7), the entire geographical landscape of Guyana in involved.
The last two dimensions can possibly be used to arrive at the conclusion that indeed as Kaieteur News puts it, Guyana has collapsed. Traditionally, and up to the moment, those who commit crimes make a distinction between a safe time and a loaded time. A loaded time means that the period is too loaded with people, places and events to make a move. A loaded time would be from mid morning to around eight in the evening. But unlike Jamaica and the US, open robberies are taking place anytime of the day, anytime of the evening, and this is what is making for collapse. The Bhaggan drug store robbery took place inside the building before eight in the evening in full view of shoppers at one of the busiest pharmacies in the heart of Georgetown. Such a thing may happen in Kingston but in a more suburban area. The armed theft at the fishermen coop took place in mid morning when dozens and dozens of fishermen were present, many of them having licensed firearms. The armed theft of the valuable properties minibus passengers have all taken place in crowded villages like Annandale and Agricola. There are no more robberies in isolated areas. It is this sixth dimension that has sent a chill down the spine of the Guyanese population. It is this sixth dimension coupled with the seventh one that may now have ended any indecision by a large amount of Guyanese as to whether they should remain in Guyana.
The seventh one is the factor that caused Guyana to displace Jamaica as the capital of violence in the CARICOM region. Nowhere is safe in Guyana. Savage attacks on police officer and bestial and violent robberies are taking place all over Guyana. This is a large country, and when you have a sadistic attack on a senior police officer or a well known enterprise in one area one day, then the pattern is repeated daily in towns and villages thousands of miles apart, then like the sixth dimension, it drives home the stark reality into your head that Guyana is no longer safe.
But maybe there is an eight dimension. Unlike Jamaica, Trinidad and the US, there are captured assailants. Some killers get away, some are not so lucky. For example, in Trinidad, within days of the kidnap of a wealthy tycoon's son, the police got the plotters. In Guyana, there are simply no captured bandits. The getaway story is maybe the eight dimension that could be added to the sixth and seventh thereby triggering the collapse. Two wanted men were killed on the Turkeyen access but two others got away. At the South Ruimveldt and Vreed-en-Hoop shootouts, the vehicles of the criminals had crashed yet the men got out of their badly damaged cars and just fled. Don't let's knock our hard-working and underpaid police but like every other citizen in the country, the police themselves may be fearful. Has Guyana finally collapsed not from the factor we expected - political instability but from wanton criminal savagery?