This week is still new but it offered a fresh insight into national life. Some of the things that happened made me realise that the government could be very secretive when it wants to.
Early in the month, exactly one week after April Fool’s Day, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas was en route to China. She landed at the Miami International Airport and was subjected to a secondary inspection.
Her phone was seized.
The government has not said whether the visit was official. If it was not, then that tells a different story.
People who are usually in transit simply pass through the port of entry to their respective flights once they have the requisite landed documents. In cases where they do not have the landed documents, they are escorted to the departure lounge, that is if they are not being sent back, and placed on the flight to their destination.
I have passed through the Miami International Airport on many occasions. I was stopped once because my fingerprints were in the system. I had been fingerprinted when I surrendered my Green Card.
No one took my phone. I was not handcuffed. And it was not long before I was let go. I returned several times after because my visa was not revoked.
In the instance of the Permanent Secretary, I now hear that she was on a Watch List. I know that there are 30 sealed indictments for Guyanese. It simply means that whenever they land in any United States port of entry they are going to be arrested.
Funny how things work. A few weeks ago when the authorities arrested Tacuma Ogunseye some three weeks after his pronouncement on a political platform, I simply asked the Police Public Relations Unit why did it take the police three weeks and a comment by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo before Ogunseye could be arrested.
Lo and behold, Permanent Secretary Mae Toussaint Jr wrote on a social media page questioning my standing as a reporter. She asked whether I was a reporter or a political activist.
I explained to her that I was asking a legitimate question. She gave me an answer about her men, the police, taking that length of time to undertake a proper investigation.
That aside, it is unusual for a high ranking government officer to be so treated by the authorities in the United States. The late President Desmond Hoyte had a Member of Parliament who was a Rasta. He decided to travel with drugs to the United States. That was the last I heard of him.
What could the Permanent Secretary have been doing that her seniors in Government did not know of? I am not going to make any suggestions. But I can state some facts.
Last Monday Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton announced that the PPP was paying Black people to wear the red jersey.
A few hours later, President Irfaan Ali was at the microphone accusing Norton of abusing and of making derogatory remarks about Black people. He said that the days of slavery were over and that Black people were no longer bought.
It was the same with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. Minutes after a PNCR press conference, he would be hosting a press conference to attack whatever was said at the press conference.
Three weeks after the arrest of the Permanent Secretary there has been a marked silence by the government. It could not be said that they did know. Word is that Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, Sam Hinds, went down to Miami. He had to be called by the authorities in Guyana.
He must know what transpired but he is saying nothing.
Rumours are flying wild. If only to preserve the image of the Permanent Secretary the government needs to say something.
After all, the government talks a lot about transparency. One must now wonder about what the government says.
The Attorney General, not Anil Nandlall, was made aware that the United States wanted a suspected drug dealer, Garfield Sobers, who eventually served a relatively short stint in the prison. There were others.
That is only one embarrassing episode for Guyana. One member of the Guyana Elections Commission was hauled in at Miami a few months ago. Again nothing was said. The person who gave me the information said that she was not certain that he caught the flight.
The focus at this time is on the Permanent Secretary’s phone. One can only wonder about the information on the phone. Was there communication about transactions?
A columnist, GHK Lall recently wrote, Interestingly, this phone plight puts the Government of Guyana in a predicament. It looks powerless, and it is. It is about what could be trapped in that phone, and the stories they tell of what is really going on here: A shot across the bow of the PPP Government.
He continued: I paused in reading of a Permanent Secretary and her seized phone. A PS is not a clerk, but a most senior public servant; that phone has much government business, possibly plenty of government secrets.
PS of the Ministry of Home Affairs is not PS of Amerindian Affairs, with every regard for indigenous Guyanese.
He wrote, “Home Affairs means internal security, the Guyana Police Force, and the range of responsibilities. The PS is the CEO presiding over all that, a literal storehouse of detail. Oh, this is trouble for the PPP Government.”
We know that the Permanent Secretary had access to the smart city cameras. Those cameras record happenings in the city. That phone must still be working so all the smart city information is being viewed by the United States authorities.
It was no secret that the United States wanted Barry Dataram. It was also no secret that there were other Guyanese targeted by the United States.
The United States Ambassador to Guyana, Ms. Sarah Ann Lynch, is no stranger to the people in the government. We don’t know whether anyone asked her anything. And being the consummate diplomat, I don’t think she was say anything.
Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn has gone on record to state that the Permanent Secretary still has her job.
