The climate of fear felt and expressed by many of our compatriots these days is real and unprecedented in the history of this country. The prime minister denies it and declares that only drug traffickers and other criminals live in fear. Ironically, kingpins like Franklin were merrily going about their own business undisturbed and would have continued to do so had it not been for the French gendarmes and courts that we have no control over.

This climate of fear was deliberately created by the authorities to scare all of us into submission and punish whoever does not toe the line. But it did not happen without our consent. We contributed to it by our own silence, cowardice, selfishness and …fear.

The persecution of political opponents started as early as 2015 and continued relentlessly. We not only looked the other way but we encouraged it through a vilification campaign against the victims. The setting up of the Special Striking Team made it more blatant as this police unit started striking at vociferous opponents to the system and branded them as drug traffickers. We sided with the SST and encouraged them by giving them the benefit of the doubt. Very quickly, it arrogated itself more powers and started signing its own warrants and intruding into the intimacy of innocent people without going through a magistrate to prove reasonable suspicion. Then it transpired that even in cases when magistrates refused to sign a warrant, the SST signed its own warrant and raided the house of the targeted ‘enemy’ nonetheless. Later, we found out that some police officers were walking around with signed warrants without a name, to presumably be used against anyone the SST wants or is instructed to attack, or is asked to attack. In other house raids, up until now, no warrant has been produced. We still looked the other way.

The attacks became more and more personal and more and more vicious and their aim was obvious: to intimidate, persecute, punish, scare and silence people: Akil Bissessur and his family, Harish Chundunsing, Rama Valayden, Bruneau Laurette…We were not concerned.

Each time a politically motivated hit was disguised as a drug raid and arrest, the opponent was kept in custody for an extended period of time after a systematic objection to their release, with no proof of their guilt being produced in court. When the court decides to grant bail to the victims, presumably because of lack or absence of evidence, the magistrate comes under attack, her competence is put into question and her decision challenged in court. We were not revolted by this.

A war was waged on the office of the DPP after his granting bail to some high profile cases and a smearing campaign followed. He fought it alone, without our help.

It was only when the SST hit again at Akil Bissessur and his family through a seemingly framing exercise gone haywire that we started realising that there is no limit to what the police could do and that any hapless citizen could be the next target. And it is only then that we started feeling the fear we should have started feeling when our rights were being nibbled at slowly but surely. What happened in court last week drove that fear deeper into our spine: a police officer went as far as committing contempt of court because the commissioner of police was not happy with the DPP respecting the constitutional rights of citizens. The police then decide to hire a private lawyer to try and circumvent the DPP’s advice!

The fear that a large chunk of the population lives in today is real. It is justified. It is legitimate. Citizens are increasingly resorting to installing CCTV cameras to protect themselves not only from criminals but also from those who are supposed to protect us from them.

Fear of the criminals who are operating freely. Fear of the police who might target us anytime and keep us in custody for as long as they want. Fear of our own fear. We can no longer look the other way, can we?