The false theory of the criminalized state

Nov 14, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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There are two issues which galvanized the Guyanese people to narrowly boot the PPPC out of office. The first was the perception of widespread thieving under the PPP/C. The second was the belief that the APNU+AFC would make the country safer.
The argument of one theorist was that there was a criminalized state under the PPP/C and this was responsible for massive corruption. The APNU+AFC bought that theory hook, line and sinker.
The APNU+AFC coalition is now realizing that Guyana does not have a criminalized state. There may be criminals within the state machinery and crimes may still exist within the government. But the benchmarks of a criminalized state have not been established.
Such a state, if it existed, would not have been dismantled by simply a change in government. The criminalized state would have had to involve a criminalized ruling class. But we are yet to see evidence of a criminalized class in Guyana, as distinct from criminalized elements and individuals.
What is obvious and what has been obvious for more than one hundred years in Guyana is the existence of a criminalized society. Do not get me wrong, the overwhelming majority of Guyanese are honest people. But the society to which all Guyanese belong is rife with criminality.
It has always been so. You park your bicycle and rush into a shop to buy a few items and when you come out your bicycle is gone. You plant your kitchen garden and someone steals your produce. You invite somebody into your home and they pick up something that does not belong to them.
The levels of crime- both the serious and the petty – are unbelievable in the country. These days, no one is safe. You are afraid to go out because the place you are going to might be invaded by some gun-wielding bandits. You are afraid to stay at home because the bandits are now coming with crowbars and wrenching your doors open. You are not even safe in the police station. This is what life has come to in Guyana.
The government was boasting the other day how the statistics showed that crime was down. It was also bragging that cases are being solved more quickly and more criminals are being arrested. Well, the crime continued despite all this talk about the crime rate and the improvement in crime-fighting.
The government called on people to have patience. But the government itself seems to have lost patience in its statistics and crime-fighting methods. It is now launching a major operation, the usual window dressing exercise which, like Operation Safeway, helps reduce crime for a short period but leads to a spike when it is over.
The government says that it is in receipt of information of an internal security threat. This is just an excuse which the government is making to justify using the army for its window- dressing exercise intended to make citizens feel safer.
The APNU+AFC had indicated that it is not supportive of the army being involved in police operations. But faced with a serious crime wave, it has to find an excuse to bring out the army.
Well, if the government has indeed received information about a threat to internal security, why make the threat public? Why not use the element of surprise to target the threat. This past weekend’s exercise is just a window dressing exercise which is intended to show that something is being done about crime.
We have had such exercises in the past. They will not reverse the decision which has already been taken by Guyanese living overseas to cancel spending Christmas in Guyana. People would rather lose their airfares than come to Guyana and end up face to face with a trigger-happy young person.
All the government’s crime fighting strategies will fail unless the government accepts that Guyana is a highly criminalized society. People are stealing water from the state. They are stealing electricity. They are stealing land through squatting. They are breaking the law openly.
Outside of a locked-up building on Robb Street, a group of men are washing cars in the afternoons on the roadway. They are using a water line that runs to the building, whose owner is overseas. The owner is going to be faced with a hefty bill when he returns, even though no water is going to his building. The water is being diverted from his metered line to wash cars on the roadway.
GPL says that it is losing more than US$30M per year in electricity theft. This is more than what GUYSUCO earns each year. And the government is complaining about having to bail out GUYSUCO. It should be complaining about the criminalized society in which honest people work hard for what they have, only to be deprived of it by bandits.
The government cannot fix the crime problem without an acknowledgement that we are dealing with widespread criminalization in society. Can you believe that children are stealing other children’s lunch in school? Can you believe that? You had better if crime is to be brought under control.

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