BY GHK Lall
Somebody please tell me that the PPP Government isn’t serious. No confirmation needed, but I had to table that, anyway. A national spy agency? For what purpose fellow Guyanese? To gather intelligence in foreign locations only? Whoever falls for that bull from the PPP Government, with the Hon Attorney General piloting this local spy satellite forward is slower than me, has fewer marbles left, and qualifies as a complete simpleton, possessing idiotic trust.
I go to the jugular: this PPP Government spy agency is to spy on Guyanese. To spy on Guyanese wherever they are. Repeat: wherever they are. If government and vicious, volatile leaders cannot stomach honest questions, attack even women, and unchains its online stormtroopers to intimidate, stomp out dissenters, then there is no telling what the power and presence of a Guyanese spy agency could be used for (locally), whose presences (locally) can be jeopardized, and what where all its snooping leads (locally). I harbor the worst. A national spy agency is fa PPP ‘jumbie bird’ for tyrannizing and terrorizing Guyanese. Technology invaded, degraded. Records accessed, misused. Constitutional sanctuaries violated, profaned. In every instance, citizens are endangered, subject to creeping totalitarian horrors. This is what the PPP has always been about: not governing, but plotting for anything that assures dominating and controlling.
I hear that all constitutional protections would be intact. Sorry AG, but that only adds to local anxieties because of the inspiring regard that the PPP Government has had for Constitution and hallowed provisions. In case any Guyanese needs enlightening, I recommend the Hon. Attorney General; he is sure to have a lovely cover story ready to soothe sensitive nerves; especially when citizens have been abused, victimized, and demonized. How can I not denounce this artifice in any politician’s hand to kingdom come? Reference that reassurance about Director Generals reporting directly to His Excellency, the President, I regret saying (again) that that does nothing to banish unease; in fact, it intensifies concerns as to where all of this could lead. Respectfully Excellency, there are simply too many colleagues, friends, supporters, well-wishers, and citizens, who generally can be said to be one step ahead of the law, touched by it, in some manner or degree. No spying on them, free passes, as we have seen. Think money laundering, smuggling, trafficking. Those sound like spy material to me.
Here is the crux of the matter: a PPP fundamentalist, a friendly PPP capitalist, or a PPP sellout artist is involved in domestic underhand type business, and where does that lead, if not nowhere. As has happened here repeatedly. Contrastingly, any opponent, any dissident, any objectionable resident would be targeted, spied upon, and hauled over the coals, if not burnt at the stake. Unjustifiably also. This is where I am with this newest dirty, trickly business coming out of the mind of clever PPP Government schemers.
I fully appreciate that Great Britain has its MI5 and MI6 for domestic and foreign spook matters respectively. Similarly, America has the CIA and the FBI, with which some extraordinary Guyanese have acquaintance. It might be just on paper and in computer files, but the links to the latter are pronounced. The security, confidence, checks, and balances, is that the USA, generally speaking, is a country of laws, notwithstanding rising executive lawlessness. Can any Guyanese ever contemplate a sitting President (or one who was one) being wrapped in the long arm of the law? I certainly can’t.
The point is that Guyana is not America because, for the most part, we do not have trusted institutions, credible people, and a visible, vocal, and vigorous watchdog class. Hence, a national spy agency would be the worst thing that we can ever contemplate, ever have. Remember Special Branch in Burnham’s hands. For emphasis: despite PPP pontifications about foreign based and foreign field of operations, I have heard better representations on different things and different areas under PPP governance, only for the worst to result. This is a nonstarter: to much exposure, too much danger for Guyanese, because of the high probability of misuse and misdirection to get at perceived PPP enemies. The group-party and government-is neither disciplined nor principled nor law-abiding nor trustworthy enough-for any clearheaded, right-thinking Guyanese ever to see positives in such a spy agency concoction.
Here are some parting tidbits. ABC&E people now have the least respect for issues emerging out of the PPP Government. Which one of those countries will greenlight its spooks sharing information with Guyanese operating on their shores, diplomatic cover or not? Who is not going to spy on them, their work, and compromise them? When I consider the implications of that seized phone, it is obvious that the foreigners must be shaking their heads in remorse for their work. After working so hard to return the PPP and its princes to power, matters had to deteriorate to where they are. Talk about a terrible investment.
I close with this nugget: there can never be clean government, or credible leaders, when there are so many borderline characters, and outright pathological misfits holding positions of great influence. Spy agency: sell that to domestic dunces. I don’t even trust WhatsApp and that baloney about end-to-end encryption. Since trust is low for American operators, it can only be much, much lower Guyanese politicians. A Guyanese radical in Brooklyn had better watch out, other Guyanese-American citizens also, wherever they are. When will the Hon Attorney General come up with something pure, profound, and sound? When will be the PPP Government come out with serves the best interests of Guyanese, and not only those of a party bent on tyranny?
