GHK Lall – Could be coincidence, the strangely long roll of it. Now starting, warming, with a longer way to go. Who dares to stand against the PPP, even when there is still the undecided, business figuring out the pluses and problems? The saga of the Mohamed family presents all Guyanese with a TV special of the way things are in this hood, how matters can deteriorate in a hurry. The rate at which the situation is developing, the TV special may have to become a serial. Looking at the family’s ongoing ordeal, there is a weight that rests heavily. Coincidence of developments that have no relationship, or a combination of intensifying weapons directed at the family? Weapons that are sinister, what points to the ominous? There is an elections season now underway, but one with what is different from the last 75 years. This one is about political victory, but with only one real dog in that fight.
So, when is the business of the people not really about that kind of business, but about the ruthless business of politics in Guyana? Neutralize potential opponents before they could get settled at the wicket. It is a wicked one, with lots of mischief already. In building this presentation as a service to fellow citizens, one thing must register. Whatever the breach, whatever the wrong, whatever the injustice claimed to have roots with the Mohamed family, justice must prevail. True justice more than hints at fairness; it is fairness exemplified.
First, the startling came all the way from the District of Columbia. The US alleged and the US sanctioned. From friend to fiend, with foreign forces recruited. Not for the narcotics trade (or free and fair elections), let it be said. But for taxes not paid here, for gold smuggled from where and to where, still not fully in the open. Isn’t that something? Approximately 10 months later, Guyanese are still working at solving that GT-Washington mystery. The law must run its course, the interests of Guyana must come first, the PPP has no friends. Somebody outdid me there, which takes much doing. I could give the US salvo against the Mohameds some space. Nevertheless, in the light of subsequent developments, a thought or two must be squeezed into this free delivery.
I could agree that US sanctions had little (little, nothing) to do with the always nasty and brutish domestic politics. Meaning Guyana, not America. But, since then, there has been that second and third set of circumstances. Lima Sands is Exhibit 1; Letter Kenny stands as number two. Though oceans apart, there is connectivity, and it is to the PPP. There was no attempt to conceal identity, or goal. The one goal (noncapitalized) was to provide an education on the science of Guyana’s politics, now monopolized by the PPP. There are some steps better not conceived, some things better not done, and to some places one better not go. One more thing: in this One Guyana, there is now one kind of people that are messed with at one’s own risk. The undecided, undeclared, untried, and unknown in a certain way, younger Mohamed is concluded to be budding political competition that must be snuffed out openly, then otherwise. Enter the GRA. Yes, I referred to the Guyana Revenue Authority, which ran over the Mohameds with its belated discovery of a billion-dollar tax bill that is four years overdue. I have a special fondness for people who do their homework, even when the examination is long finished. Good housekeeping, I call it, worthy of one of those ISO recognitions. The GRA first ran over the Mohameds with paper, then tried to runover them with people in uniform. There were some other people who had other ideas.
How to work all of this out? US Treasury, an introductory blast at Lima Sands, a shovel at Letter Kenny, the tax hatchet, and all with the name Mohamed written on them. The bad news for the Mohameds was that, to that point, all was out in the open. No phantoms returning to haunt the existence of Guyanese. That is, until they reappeared. Dark tints in the dark of night, with most likely dark eyeglasses. A sitting, cold car burned in what I believe to be a political cremation. Recall that one: doan mess wid wee. What is PPP democracy without a phantom of two to keep things n order. I say it high, and I say it loud: that incinerated car is not one of those all-purpose and ubiquitous (sorry) interpretations and conclusions of “electrical in origin.” It has its owners. intellectual authors, sponsorship, teamwork, and ready executioners. As an aside, the Hon. Clifton Anthony Hichen, Guyana’s incomparable Top Cop, recently wrote a book. Congrats, sir. I hope some of that is in there.
Last, my understanding is that drones circled the Mohameds residence. The psychological pressures are ratcheting up on the family, and I don’t think they have much to do with law and taxes. A man hasn’t utilized his constitutional right to declare his candidacy, but that is declared by the PPP to be a problem of crisis proportions. By process of elimination (crimes, sanctions, taxes, laws), there is little left. Unless littering the political landscape counts to such extents.
