THE lady that goes under the Facebook name of Melly Mel (Melissa Atwell) has posted some grotesque comments about the Attorney-General (AG). I am not a social media activist. I do not have a smart phone or a Facebook page. I am a trained academic that does social analysis.
I have been doing this since I entered UG as a freshman. I concentrate on political/sociological analyses of social phenomena. I do not read Melly Mel (MM) or Rickforde Burke. I do so because I believe the offerings from these people are not of value to be taken seriously. I swear on my parent’s grave, I have never asked someone to show me what this lady writes. People have shown me things from MM that they think might arouse my curiosity.
I did not know of the accusations against the AG until I was shown them on Friday evening in the studio when I went to do the live Freddie Kissoon call-in show. I do not think anyone with a rational mind will take those rambling things seriously. I was approached with the exclamation: “Freddie, look wuh Melly Mel saying about the AG.”
There is nothing I found that is particular, specific or revealing. It is just general, scandalous things that I have been told by friends who have been on the Facebook platform for months now. The list includes which minister is having an affair with which woman, etc. MM takes general things and puts a spin on them. For example, the AG was not in the first five recipients of votes at the recent PPP congress.
So here is what MM did. She wrote that the AG told her people were out to get him. You keep reading and there is nothing specific. There is not one line that would cause you to think there is an occurrence within the political leadership of the government that is shocking.
Here is what I think happened. MM was informed that the Government of Guyana’s leading legal advisor, the AG may be looking at possibilities of seeking an arrest warrant for her so she decides that she will post the most scandalous things about the AG. No sane person would believe the AG over the months was in discussion with a zealous anti-government hater.
But that is the banal side of MM. The dangerous thing about MM and Rickford Burke is the helpless age we live in and there has to be a concerted effort by the Government of Guyana to bring an end to the antics of MM and Rickforde Burk because no civilized age should tolerate what these two persons do.
So, she gets up in the morning and decides she will scandalise a minister of the Government of Guyana and she does that with impunity. Why impunity? Because she does not live in Guyana and a writ cannot be served on her because the writ is not from a registered office in the US.
Not surely, the owner of Facebook, the Government of Guyana and the US Department of Justice should not allow this assault on civilised society. There has to be some law somewhere to stop MM and Burke. It is just not possible for MM and Burke to do what they want. If there is a social media influencer in Guyana that threatens US legislators and US government officials, I am dead certain the US will ask local officials her for their cooperation.
The Government of Guyana has to seek an urgent dialogue with the Justice Department to stop MM and Burke. I have not quoted from a purported Facebook post from Burke on the accusations by MM against the AG because I am not certain of the authenticity of the Burke posting.
Burke is one of the world’s luckiest persons. He gets a Guyanese-based lawyer to get court marshals to serve libel writs on people living in Guyana. But you cannot sue Burke because the writ cannot be served on him in the US. So, Burke sues Guyanese living here all the time but he can say all kinds about Guyanese living here and he remains untouchable. This situation has to change and the government has to dialogue with the UN or Facebook ownership or the Justice Department to bring an end to this brutal adventurism.
Is Burke the owner of that Facebook page on the AG? If yes, he should say so. If no, then the government should seek assistance from Facebook in the US to trace that post. I think the recent outburst from MM has now thrown the shortcomings of Facebook’s operations wide open. This age of being helpless to MM and Burke should come to an end ASAP.
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 Limited.
