Dear Editor,

The murder of Mr. Bryan King is a tragedy for all Guyanese. How safe can civil society be if the police can wantonly enter people's homes and shoot them in the mouth or pick any one of us off the road and deal blows at us and leave us to die in the lockups? What kind of police force enters people's home on the pretext of defending them and then steals their jewellery? President Jagdeo needs to immediately turn his attention to and account to the nation for the state of the Guyana Police Force, because Guyanese are unsafe both from criminal elements and from the Police Force.

At the same time I would like all those Guyanese who make a practice of and think nothing of bribing police officers or other public officials, to start considering the fruits of their actions. This practice is so commonplace in Guyana and so widespread that it is being inherited by our new generations. We cannot expect a law abiding society if we are not law abiding citizens. Anyone who bribes a public official should feel a tingle of unease that they are compromising their own integrity and corrupting a public official.

But in Guyana, it is how things get done. Each of us seems to be pursuing our own puny little dreams with little or no idea of a collective vision or of the cumulative effects of our actions. We can start here. By taking the long road, not the short cut and demanding quality service and refusing to be corrupt. By recognizing that we are going nowhere fast as a nation if we continue to compromise ourselves. We are all bawling about corruption. It may sound harsh, but it takes a corrupt people to corrupt a government.

Yours faithfully,

Sandra Khan