Dear Editor,
I have noted with concern the recent headlines as it relates to a lady being charged for allegedly posting threatening remarks against President David Granger on her Facebook and WhatsApp social media accounts.
Clearly, the keystone cops and medieval justice system that prevail for the most part in Guyana are way out of their league in this specific matter. The charge is being laid under the “Racial Hostility Act” but the alleged crime itself is one that has its origins in cyberspace and there is no existing cybercrime legislation, statutes or precedents in Guyana or the Caribbean Court of Appeal to use as a yardstick.
The big question is, how can Guyana exercise suzerainty over a piece of correspondence that is literally residing in “the cloud” connected to a server located outside of the sovereign jurisdiction of Guyana.
Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial reach could not possibly extend beyond its immediate shores with the exception of properties or assets it owns or exercises control over in another country or territory such as any of its embassies or consulates abroad as enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Immunity (1953 and 1961).
The data servers of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other global content, OTT and messaging providers are located anywhere else but the terra firma or territorial waters of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and, as such, could be in any number of locations such as the US, Canada, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, UK, Germany, Israel, South Africa, Australia or India. If the case is to be tried in a proper court of law, then it will have to be accorded ‘locus standi’ in the territory or country where the actual physical server hosting the correspondence is located.
Not too long ago, there was a similar case involving the current Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago (the then Leader of the Opposition) – Dr Keith Rowley and many high-ranking Cabinet Ministers of the disgraced Kamala Persad-Bissessar regime.
This case has since been referred to as “Emailgate” and it took several months and war of nerves between the then Government of Trinidad & Tobago and the powers that be at Google’s HQ in Silicon Valley to bring clarity to an otherwise murky situation (for the lack of a better word). In the end and millions of dollars later – no good was achieved and the case remains one for the history books or, for that matter, Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
This case that is now engaging the attention of the local judiciary is nothing but a frenzied rush and can be best described as ‘a wild goose chase’ or ‘a fishing expedition’.
In less than a month, we will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary and so let us all let bygones be bygones and I respectfully call upon President Granger to take a page from the exemplary conduct of Gandhiji, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
He is the President and he can show his compassion and love as a fellow human being by forgiving this fellow sister of the soil for whatever transgressions she is alleged to have committed. We must live up to our creed of One People, One Nation, One Destiny.
Best regards,
Mike Singh