The recent security reform fiasco is an indictment on the nation

Nov 03, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Is the Guyana Government truly committed to its constitutionally entrenched responsibility to ensure the safety and security of its citizens?
The recent decision by the British Government to plug its £4.9 million from the security reform project is a massive blow to the local security sector and a major set back for citizens.
According to Government’s spokes person Dr. Luncheon, “the British wants to be chief cook and battle wash”, the Government also tells Guyanese that the British’s proposal impinges on Guyana’s sovereignty.
The British Ambassador rebutted the Guyana Government, and states that their decision to abandon the project is because the Guyana Government would have, drastically, changed the original project.
Specific mentioned was made regarding the scope of the project. According to the British, the Guyana Government changed the original project to reflect reform in the police force, only, as opposed to a holistic reform of the entire security sector as was agreed to earlier by the Guyana Government and the UK.
It is very difficult for every Guyanese to accept and understand why the PPP/C Government would try to play the power game and risk the successful overhauling of the nation’s entire security system, at a time when the safety and security of every Guyanese is at risk.
Dr. Luncheon’s comments in the press leaves much to be desired and signaled yet another missed opportunity by the nation’s chief executives to demonstrate to the public that they are serious about putting the nation first.
Instead, the Government seems more interested in exhibiting some kind of political muscle.
Like many Guyanese I am not, at all, surprised by Government’s actions and their usual follow up activity of a shameless propaganda scheme aimed at wining public sympathy. The sovereignty encroachment claim by Government is well designed to arouse innate patriotic and nationalist emotions to rally behind them blindly, while we inadvertently endorse an executive culture which seems to support a move headed towards the criminalization of the state, and in fact putting our own safety at risk.
Government tells Guyanese that it is concerned about their safety but their report card on crime and security concerns is dismal, as their actions are wholly inconsistent with their claims.
Just last August Government ditched a crime and security conference organised by the U.S Southern Command, U.S Embassy, and the Centre of Hemispheric Defence Studies, and stated publicly that it will have no part of the conference.
A day or two before the start of the conference Dr. Luncheon made a statement in the press stating that Government will not attend the conference because, according to him, Government was not allowed to own the programme. So this political stunt pulled by Government should come as no surprise to any of us who pay attention to the actions of Government.
And so while we cannot understand Government’s uncooperative move in this instance, we are not surprised by it, since the record remains clear as to where they stand on the issue of crime and security.
The question now should be who benefits from sustained criminal activities, perpetrated by a growing criminal enterprise?
How can Government defend its position to only want police reform when the Guyana Defence Force and Prison Service are all in the same dilemma? Is Government satisfied with the work of the Joint Services, in light of the many reports of torture committed by same?
Does the killing of Bartica gold dealer Dweive Ramdass, by Guyana Defence Force Coastguards not create a renewed urgency on the part of Government to reform the Guyana Defence Force? One would have thought that with the torture and resulting murder of Edwin Niles while in custody of the Guyana Prison Service, the allegations of torture of Patrick Sumner, Victor Jones, David Zammit and others by the security forces the President and Government would have been adamant in ensuring that there is a major restructuring of the entire security sector. Why attempt to restrict the reform to the police only, is Government happy with the claims of torture leveled at the security agency?
Dr. Luncheon tells Guyanese that the fact that the British has no longer committed to funding the project will not hamper its implementation, and that public funding will pick up the slacks.
What he failed to tell us is how much our unborn children will be indebted to Government as a result of this public funding. Secondly, since the Guyana Government, as can be gleaned from his utterances, could have handled this project why didn’t Government initiated same much earlier, and spare the nation all the massacres and mayhem?
See, a lot of time when Government makes certain statements it do so under the pretext that, we, the citizens are not intellectually savvy to detect their insincere and disingenuous intention.
I believe this recent security reform fiasco will be an indictment on the nation and reverberate like sweet music to the ears of the criminals, both within and outside of Government.
Woe is unto us should we again elect a government that fails to put our safety and security first.
Lurlene Nestor

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