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THE IDELOGY OF MILITARY SUPREMECY

Jun 12, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

There have been concerns about the widespread appointments of ex-military personnel to positions within the public service and to spearhead Commissions of Inquiry. The issue has unfortunately been spun to make it seem as if those opposed to these appointments are against ex-army people being employed.
This is far from the truth. No one is denying the right of ex-military to positions within the government. What is being challenged is that they are being appointed, in most instances, without an open and competitive system.
The PPP did not have such a system in place when it made such appointments. APNU is continuing to do the same even though they promised change. The APNU is however going much further than the PPP and has made far more appointments of ex-military personnel that the PPP did.
There is a belief within the highly influential sections of the political directorate that army personnel have superior skills than civilians. This is one of the reasons why there is such a mad haste to appoint ex-military personnel to positions within the public service.
If the ex-military personnel are so intelligent and skilled, if they are superior to others, then what is there to prevent them going through a competitive process for finding jobs.  Surely if they are better than civilians, there should be nothing preventing them from applying for jobs and being subject to an open and competitive system.
What was to prevent, for example, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation from re-advertising the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer and having an open competitive system for filling the position?
This is the issue. But the issue of ex-military men being highly competent also needs to be addressed. If there is a mindset which feels that Guyana’s military men possess superior security skills than the police; if there is a mindset which says that the army is superior to the police, then we know where this can leave us. Higher salaries and benefits are always going to be paid to the army.
So is there an ideological element at work in terms of these appointments? Are these appointments being made on the basis that the military is a superior institution?
There is a new anti-narcotics unit headed by an ex-army man. How was this appointment filled? Was it advertised or was the person handpicked simply because of his military background?
The Head of the National Intelligence Agency is an ex-army official. Was this position advertised or was someone handpicked because of the practice of this ideology of military supremacy?
The ideological issue must be settled. Are appointments being made on the basis of an ideology of military superiority?  Cannot ex-police personnel fill these positions, also?
The military is no paragon of virtue of professionalism. Guyana’s military has a dirty, dirty past, including its involvement in rigging of elections, political intimidation and harassment. The ideology of the superior military man therefore is open to challenge.
The second issue concerns the fact that retired persons are being appointed. If the government continues with this policy of appointing persons who are past the retirement age to positions within the public service, it will destroy the morale of the public service.
Persons are likely to feel that they can be superseded by a retired army official. Professionals are not going to stick around for this to happen.
The government needs to develop a policy regarding retirees being reemployed within the government service, be these military retirees, public service retirees or private sector retirees. It cannot be okay for ex-army personnel to be reemployed within the public service even as drivers, thereby displacing young persons, and the same does not apply to returned teachers, policemen and persons from the private sector. In others words, what applies to ex-military personnel, must equally apply to every retiree.

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