The sister of Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Azruddin Mohamed, said he was tortured. The Guyana Prison Service (GPS) said he was not. Mr. Azruddin Mohamed should be out on bail. He is the best body of evidence (literally) as to whether he was or wasn’t tortured. He has a duty to step before the public and clear the air on this thorny, alarming report. He must do so soonest.
Honesty demands that a clear and fair accounting be presented on what was his prison experience. The GPS said that he was treated with all the care due a ‘high-profile’ prisoner. I take ‘high-profile’ prisoner to mean that every standard of institutional professionalism was meted out to him. If so, he must tell the tale. Even if this means that he has to throw his sister under a bus. Where did she get torture conditions from, and acted on whose bidding? Mr. Mohamed has impressed some Guyanese that he would be a different kind of politician, a new breed of Opp leader. He now has a chance to prove it.
If, on the other hand, he was subjected to Guyana’s equivalent of Chinese water torture, and what runs counter to the GPS denial, then that also must be made known. Guyana has had prisoners tortured before, and they were not as hated nor feared as Mr. Mohamed. Just recently, a prisoner, Mr. Gavin Douglas, ended up dead, with marks of violence to prove that his experience was not a fantasy. The bottom line is that Mr. Douglas is now gone, and everyone in government and elsewhere are wringing their hands, and lamenting what Guyana has come to, where it actually is.
Going back to the Leader of the Opposition, he has manifested that he is not allergic either to the camera or the microphone. Therefore, in his hands and through his voice, I place on him the responsibility of informing the nation whether his prison stay was an ordeal. Or it was what is now one of his quick weekend holidays from the grind of political demands in Guyana. The Guyanese people shouldn’t be left hanging on the prongs of doubt and guesswork. They are owed. A timely revelation is as good as a full confession. Prison conditions are up to scratch; or they are back in the Stone Age and somewhere in old Russia or China.
If he wasn’t tortured, putting a message like that out in public was playing with fire. I would denounce it. It can’t be the same old, nasty, dirty, politics. If so, then elections may as well be back to the ancient PPP and PNC standards and behaviors. When WIN and Mohamed’s companions decide to take a leaf out of the PPP Govt’s playbook, then Guyanese are back to square one, their votes wasted. I recall from 50 years ago, a political operator telling me ‘bhai, yuh nah kno politics.’ He was right then. And I have no interest in knowing this kind now.
Mr. Mohamed’s shocker and shakeup of the polls last September have been described as ‘seismic shift’ and ‘political earthquake’ and a sea change. It may have been all of those, but of what benefit when it is same ole, same ole. Except for new faces, and what are held out as supposedly new narratives, only for them to turn out to be the regulah lang time story. For the last time, if Mr. Mohamed was tortured, as said, he can neither be too clever nor too hesitant in putting everything on the table. Anything less would leave Guyanese in a hole. If no other Guyanese wants to know, I do.
Step up. Shape up. Speak up. Over to Mr. Mohamed.
