The last week has been quite an eventful one. Thursday last, the news broke that an ex body-guard of mine was arrested and taken into Police custody. There was public pandemonium among the media fraternity in Guyana. Journalists, anxious to keep me in the public domain, went wild. The social media moved into overdrive. Immediately, a link was established between the arrest of this person and the shooting of Courtney Crum- Ewing. Great effort was expended at pointing fingers in my direction. I often under-estimate how much attention I am capable of generating until something like this occurs. Within the hour, I was forced to hold a press conference because my phone would simply not stop ringing. I read a prepared statement to the press conference.

exculpatory

As it turned out, it appears to be much ado about nothing. I subsequently learnt that Rajput Narine was released after 72 hours in Police custody. His arrest hardly had anything to do with Courtney Crum-Ewing. It was in relation to an attempt by a known person in the criminal underworld in Police custody trying to implicate him in another incident, wholly unrelated to Crum-Ewing. Significantly, the same media outfits that were so excited and carried blazing headlines regarding his arrest with my name, prominently featured, did not see it fit to report his release from Police custody. Even more importantly, the Guyana Times and the Evening News, the only media house that seem interested in following the story, reported that Narine confirmed that he was hired by me after the Crum-Ewing shooting and he did not know me before I hired him. He further confirmed that his brother from New York was responsible for the two of us meeting. I presume that because these facts are exculpatory of me, they are not reported in the other media houses and are certainly not even mentioned by my foes in the social media. I have no doubt that the situation would have been reversed if I was being incriminated. But then again, that is the nature of a society contaminated with political bacteria.

the PM jumps in

Not to be left out of the limelight which this saga has generated in the public domain, Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, whose appetite for publicity is indeed legendary, jumped into the arena. He alleges that Sean Hinds, the self-proclaimed member of a death squad, was seen “rekeying” his house. I wish not to speak for Sean Hinds. I am aware that he has competent Counsel in Mr. Nigel Hughes, the Chairman of the AFC. Therefore, I have no doubt that him and the Prime Minister can amicably resolve that matter. My concern relates to the bold assertion by Mr. Nagamootoo that he has information that a black “automobile belonging to Anil Nandlall” was seen driving past his house in the opposite direction from where Hinds vehicle was parked. If Mr. Nagamootoo was an unknown quantity to me and not publicly known for his fabricating capabilities, I would have been worried. As a result, I dismissed his wild ranting as delusions of grandeur, and apparently so did the media. Not a single reporter asked me a single question about this matter. His attempt to generate a story abysmally failed.

authoritarianism

This hectic week ended with two of my former Ministerial Colleagues and party comrades being charged and placed before two different Magistrate’s Court for various offences. Fortunately, they have both been placed on bail. So we now have the intended Opposition Leader and Former President, Bharat Jagdeo, Members of Parliament and Former Ministers, Jennifer Westford and Bheri Ramsarran, all charged with criminal offences pending in the Magistrate’s Court. The burning question is who is next? No one is apparently safe anymore.

What is certain is that in 23 years of Government not one Opposition political figure of any worth was charged under the PPP/Civic administration. In two months, 2 have been charged under the Coalition Government. Certainly, more will be. There is no doubt in my mind that democracy is under threat and authoritarianism is on the rise. When Opposition political leaders are dealt with by the State in this fashion one can only imagine what will be unleashed on the ordinary citizen in due course. The media has an important role to play. The sooner it purges itself of political jaundice the better for democracy and indeed Guyana