Open letter to the Caribbean Police Commissioners

May 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Dear Gentlemen:
Welcome to Guyana. Hope you are making progress in your deliberations on security and police matters in the Caribbean. I do not know if you read my commentary, yesterday, in this newspaper.
That commentary was directed to all of you on the pitfalls of Guyana’s President opening remarks to you. I am doing here what I have always done since my days as a youth, and that is try to open the eyes of visitors to Guyana on the nature of political sociology in this land.
Guyana’s polity has been a troubling one since the British gave us self-rule. Under the control of the present ruling party from 1957 -1964, this country was violently torn apart by political parties espousing opposing ideologies and ethnic loyalties. Nothing has changed since then.
From 1968 -1985, the government under the present major opposition party carried out a reign of oligarchic brutalities that disgraced this country around the world. We have continued in that vein with the return of the party that governed Guyana in the fifties, the People’s Progressive Party. I need to point out that there is absolutely nothing progressive in this organisation. A more appropriate word to describe this entity would be “egregious.”
The typology that I have used to assess the nature of power under President Jagdeo who addressed you on Monday is taken from the theoretical framework of one of America’s leading social scientists, Professor Fareed Zakaria. He used the concept of illiberal democracy to describe the eerie descent of legally elected governments into authoritarianism.
The sister concept is referred to as elected dictatorship. Using Zakaria’s methodology, one can see graphic signs of dictatorship on the pages of power in Russia, Venezuela and Guyana. In fact, Zakaria is very harsh on governments that use free elections and govern undemocratically. He evaluates Antigua as partly free and Antigua is millions of mile ahead of Guyana in terms of democracy. Imagine, then, how Zakaria would paint Guyana.
The purpose of my letter here is basically to continue where I left off yesterday. But specifically, I want to steer you away from any contemplation that our President here is a practicing democrat.
My outline here should be on the nature of power in Guyana so you could see the type of governance we have here but such notes may not attract you since all of you would be more interested in police matters.
So let me provide you will brief details on policing in Guyana. Unlike many Caricom states, the Jagdeo presidency has not followed the route of some other Caricom states to have FBI and Scotland Yard officials integrated in the local force.
Our crime situation is as horrendous as many other Caribbean nations
The Guyana Government is yet to have a modern fully equipped forensic laboratory for the police force comparable to Jamaica and Trinidad’s This is three years after an IDB grant of $US20M for police reform which included the setting of up a forensic lab.
This is the reality in Guyana. The police force is in urgent need of a complete laboratory fitted out with the scientific equipments necessary to solve crime. President Jagdeo had the temerity to tell you in his opening address that the US should treat the poorer states as equal partners.
The US probably finds it a horribly backward country that in the modern world does not have a standard forensic laboratory.
Unfortunately, I would not be able to give you a tour of the labs in Guyana, only those at the university. Three years ago, the very President described the University’s labs as “atrocious” when he opened the University’s computer centre.
With due respect to him, he did ask the Caribbean Development Bank for a loan of $600 million to upgrade those labs but the CDB refused. I am putting it to the three Commissioners of Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica that you would all faint if you see the lab conditions at the country’s only university.
This is the state of affairs in Guyana. No wonder Guyana may have the highest percentage of unsolved crimes in the Caribbean
Space has run out so I have to conclude but I am sure that all you Commissioners know a little but about the pathetic approach to security in Guyana. The government is still to implement many recommendations on security matters that came out of a study by the British Government.
It was tabled in Parliament but is yet to be put into policy. In the meantime, money is spent on bread and circus. They may put on a show for you guys before you leave.

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