I BEGIN this commentary here with the assertion of my belief in the death penalty. Secondly, no sovereign nation should be coerced by big powers in the international system to adopt the values of the cultures of those countries. Culture varies from one part of the globe to another.
Each culture has its own validity. The morals and values of each country should be preserved. We eat out of a leaf at Hindu weddings. I see nothing wrong with that. The wedding guests should have a choice but the country should not frown on eating from a leaf.
In the United States, because of the way it is involved with its frontier culture, it has become impossible to pass gun control legislation. A citizen can enter a store and buy any type of gun he chooses. Powerful countries want to continue the colonial or imperialist tradition of shaping the culture and sociology of post-colonial nations.
On his first visit to Africa, President Obama, at a joint press conference that the world was watching, told President Kenyatta that Kenya should not discriminate against gay rights. The Kenyan president was forceful in his reply.
That Kenyan response today remains one of the most seminal moments in the post-colonial world’s rebuff of the habit of the West to reshape the world of developing nations.
Kenyatta told Obama that gay rights are not a national concern in Kenya because the right to basic necessities that the US has and that the Kenyans need is the country’s priority. He told Obama, like the US, when Kenya achieved those things, then it could move to gay rights.
So, we come to why no CARICOM state has resuscitated the death penalty, which has been in abeyance for over four decades.
Guyana’s last hanging was in 1997. Since then, the death penalty has been suspended.
One of the reasons why CARICOM has not carried out state execution is because of relentless pressure by the European Union using aid as leverage.
There was the infamous case of Gregory Smith, who assassinated Walter Rodney. France refused to extradite Smith from French Guiana because Guyana at the time had the death penalty. So Smith killed and lived as a free man.
This pressure by the EU is a colossal contradiction in world politics and highlights the neocolonial relations between the postcolonial world and its former European empires.
The closest bond in international relations the past 80 years is the US and the EU. The trade, finance, banking, and geopolitical relationships between the EU and the US are complex, labyrinthine, and fraternal.
In another million years, the EU would not have that kind of bonding with any post-colonial country or even a post-colonial continent. Yet the US has one of the highest rates of state executions in the world, with the appalling statistic of more Africans being on death row even though the African population is about 12 percent. And there is the perennial question as to if justice was open and fair in relation to many of those Africans who were executed from the time the 19th century began right up to the present time.
But the EU has not exerted any pressure on the US to stop state executions. The reason is obvious. The US cannot so the EU picks on weaker nations in the international system and uses aid as a threat.
Take Saudi Arabia. The EU’s relationship with Saudi Arabia is a billion times stronger than the EU’s friendship with CARICOM nations. But Saudi Arabia has a high rate of state executions.
The Attorney-General, Anil Nandlall, three years ago said on the Freddie Kissoon Show that the abolition of the death penalty is a matter for the Guyanese people to decide. He opined that if it should be abolished, that decision should come from the people of Guyana. Obviously, we are talking about a referendum.
To save itself from retaliation from the EU, CARICOM nations should put the question to each citizenry within the bloc.
The EU cannot tell a nation that it should ignore the choice of a voting public based on the results of a referendum. My opinion is once that referendum is not held, the EU is going to hold the CARICOM nation at ransom.
The Guyana government has taken the position that the terrorism act on Regent Street this week in which death resulted carries the death penalty. It is an acknowledgement or perhaps a reminder that Guyana still has the death penalty.
If found guilty, the terrorist that planted that bomb at that gas station on Regent Street should face the death penalty as soon as all appeals are exhausted.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Ltd.