Why do parents beat children? Because they can. Why does a bully pick on someone? Because he or she is certain that the person cannot retaliate in a manner that could cause harm to the bully. Why does a man beat a woman? Because he can.
The same reason applies for the government to pick on people. It is this bullying attitude that causes the government to use the police to arrest and to detain people even though there will never be a prosecution.
Calvin Heath-London was arrested and detained for three days in the Brickdam lockups then released without a charge being laid. The government had publicly accused him of misbehaving in public office.
Attorney at law James Bond was similarly arrested and detained for three days then released without any charge being proffered. And the same thing happened to Trevor Benn, the former head of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission.
The most recent recipient of the government’s attention was former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan. In this case, the authorities made an attempt on Jordan’s life.
Jordan was invited to the headquarters of the Special Organised Crime Unit for questioning.
When he arrived there in the company of his lawyers, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde and Darren Wade, the stage was already set for his detention.
Even before the ranks questioned him there was the photographer to take his mug shot. There was also every measure in place for fingerprinting.
He has already been deemed a criminal before one question was asked.
If SOCU is conducting the investigation why then was Jordan later transferred to the Sparendaam Police Station? The answer was that he was to be placed in a cell for three working days to await the whims and fancies of SOCU.
Jordan was placed on a bench in the police station when he collapsed. A diabetic and hypertensive patient, the stress caused his blood sugar and his blood pressure to elevate.
Sparendaam refused to accept him. He was taken to the Plaisance Health Centre where the attending physician requisitioned an ambulance.
It is here that the same power that allows a man to beat his wife, came to the fore. The SOCU ranks simply determined that Jordan was not going to go into any ambulance, that they were taking him back to SOCU headquarters on Camp Road. There was no consideration for his health.
One of his lawyers concluded that perhaps the powers that be wanted him to die. In the end, they released him on his own recognizance thus allowing the lawyers to take him to hospital.
But the situation did not end there. SOCU demanded that Jordan return the next day. That could not and did not happen.
Jordan was arrested in connection with a property acquired by BK International on Upper Water Street. BK International secured this property through the tender process in 2006. The PPP was in office. The asking price was $110 million.
In October 2011 a letter signed by then Finance Minister Ashni Singh stated that NICIL was willing to transfer the property to BK International at a sale price of $110 million plus the value-added tax.
In September 2009 Executive Director of NICIL, Winston Brassington, stated, “Following our meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo (there is a) draft deed of amendment to the Agreement to Lease.
That amended Lease agreement was that the lease was for 20 years and that the lessee “shall have the option to purchase the demised unit for $110 million.”
There was also an agreement that the lessee shall pay an annual rent of $10 million. BK International exercised the option to buy.
On October 14, 2014 attorneys for BK International wrote to an attorney at law Timothy Jonas to state, “Our client has repeatedly sought the transfer of the title of the property leased to him on December 4, 2006, having repeatedly stated that he wishes to exercise the option to purchase…”
There were other meetings. Winston Jordan was in no way involved in these meetings and subsequent transactions.
There was a change in government in 2015. In 2017 the issue of the property came up again. There was a further delay of two years based on an objection by then Works Minister David Patterson. Patterson contended that Transport and Harbours Department had ownership of all or part of the land.
It took two years for Transport and Harbours Department to recognize that it had no such hold on the property and could find no evidence of such. Cabinet met and agreed that the property should be sold to BK International.
On July 1, 2020, NICIL wrote to the registrar of Deeds approving the change of ownership.
There is nothing to say that Jordan colluded with Tiwarie in any document, all of which is in the possession of the government. Today there is talk that Jordan colluded to undervalue a property worth $8 billion.
There is no mention of the agreed $110 million that the very PPP government agreed was the cost of the property when the negotiations began.
A few weeks ago, former Chairman of the Police Service Commission Paul Slowe, during a television interview, described an attack on SOCU by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo as a dog whistle.
Slowe continued that he would not be surprised if SOCU should then rise up and go after Jordan based on earlier statements by Attorney General Anil Nandlall and the reaction of Vice President Jagdeo.
As old people would say, the spit didn’t even dry before Slowe was proven correct.
Jordan has been one of the critics of the government’s economic policies. The price of criticisms is arrest and detention, it seems. If Jordan had been placed in the lockups on Thursday, he would have remained there until Monday or Tuesday. Saturday and Sunday would not have counted. He might have died and someone would have been happy.
I remember the case of elections official Clairmont Mingo. He was arrested and detained. His lawyers moved to the courts on a writ of habeas corpus. He was to have been released at a certain time but wasn’t.
When the lawyers returned to court the judge reversed his decision on the ground that Mingo was to have been charged later that day.
Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon has already said that the criticisms are far from being silenced.
And Jordan? He is pursuing legal action.
