Corruption and internal security are major issues for this and the next government

Nov 06, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Afghan’s President, Mr. Hamid Karzai, who won re-election by default after his challenger withdrew from a planned presidential runoff, received a congratulatory phone call from US President, Mr. Barack Obama, who offered less than enthusiastic support given the United States’ deep concerns about Mr. Karzai’s performance as President in the areas of corruption in government and the Afghan army’s failure to do a better job at backing up the US and NATO allies.
This is what Mr. Obama said he made clear to Mr. Karzai: “I emphasised that this has to be a point in time which we begin to write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption.”
On reading Mr. Obama’s deep concern about Afghan’s corruption and security issues, I couldn’t help thinking about Guyana, which faces its own versions of serious corruption and internal security issues. I also couldn’t help imagining a US President calling a new Guyana President in 2011, to offer congratulations and hopes for a genuine fight against government corruption and genuine security sector reforms.
But while I could understand Mr. Obama’s grave concerns about the security issue, I had no idea how seriously his administration views corruption in other countries until I read a SN article (November 2), “US has banned Kenya’s Attorney-General – envoy,” in which Washington, last month, handed Kenya’s Attorney-General, Mr. Amos Wako, a travel ban after criticising him several times for not cracking down on corruption during his 18-year tenure.
One may question whether the move has anything to do with the fact that Mr. Obama has Kenyan roots and so he wants to help straighten out the government there or if it is in anticipation of a pending visit, but there is now certainly no question about whether the US can ban an official of a foreign government for a failing in his own government. It just happened, my fellow Guyanese!
I now wonder if government officials in Guyana read that article and took note that they run the risk of losing their travel privileges abroad, especially to the United States, Canada and Britain, which trio tends to operate in tandem if they share the same information and arrive at the same conclusion. In the Kenya Attorney-General’s case, he was warned several times, which means he was given chances to take corrective action and he did not, and since Guyana has repeatedly ranked high on the list of corrupt countries, including the fact that corruption is rampant in government, one has to wonder whether Washington has a shortlist of names of Guyana government officials who will be issued with travel bans in the near future.
Regardless of what people may say about America, when it takes such strong action against foreign government officials, the world pays attention, because America issuing a travel ban or revoking a visa of a foreign government official is often deemed a pronouncement of guilt against the person. It may or may not be that the person is guilty of anything, but the action itself makes headline news and sparks discussions and debates.
If the Kenya AG was guilty of inaction and not necessarily of corruption, then what does it say of the Jagdeo administration’s continued refusal to take meaningful action against massive corruption at high levels of government and society?
To the best of my recollection, apart from the Guyana Government firing a few customs and CANU officers for failing lie detector tests, no senior government official has ever been arrested on corruption charges or fired for failing lie detector tests. Matter of fact, the government made it clear that no minister or other top official will undergo polygraph testing, so that excludes a category most likely to get away with corrupt practices right there!
And corruption in and out of government may arguably be contributing to the undermining of internal security, because the police, who are supposed to be combating corruption and other forms of criminality, are themselves compromised by a range of criminal practices, including torture, therefore they are either unwilling or unable to do an effective job in enforcing the law evenhandedly against criminality in society.
With the British withdrawing their offer to finance Guyana’s security sector reform, and the police force still compromised by corruption and even dangerous criminality, some observers are wondering whether it was a deliberate ploy by government to shut out the British because of some hidden political agenda that requires the police force remains unreformed.
For example, when the spy equipment issue was raised in the Robert Simels trial in New York and the Health Minister’s name was called, the government never ordered the police to obtain a copy of the infamous authorisation letter, but the Health Ministry was burnt to the ground. A reformed police force would have gone after that letter!
And now that a picture of a lad tortured by the police has made international headlines, the government finds itself exposed as encouraging torture after previously denying previous accusations of torture, and so we now have a set of shooting up and fires taking place and the impression government wants the public to have is that criminal elements are rearing their ugly heads again.
But are these truly criminal elements or are they paid political diversionists? I won’t be surprised if the police arrest several people for this shooting up and spate of arsons, because that seems to be the political modus operandi: to create a diversion when faced with an embarrassing moment.
But I still have grave concerns about having an unreformed police force. This not only gives a green light to street criminals to take matters into their own hands, thus further eroding public confidence in government and the police, but it exposes rogue elements in the force to opportunities to become hired guns against the government.
In short, rather than creating conditions to help fight corruption, the government may be creating a monster with one head to devour its enemies, but it may yet be a monster capable of growing more heads that eventually turn against its creator. That is, unless its creator has an end game plan in all of this, such as offering shared governance to the PNC and AFC in the hope of staving off potential international scandals that could otherwise bring down the government. Recent events are really turning Guyana on its head!
Emile Mervin

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