The PPP has manipulated the police

Jul 21, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Ms. Nazima Alli has declared that we need more Randy Persauds in Guyana and I can see from where she is coming.
To support her position she gives us the resume of a man of excellent professional credentials which no one in their right minds could dispute. She is as impressed by his intellectual capacity as she is with his intellectual prowess and again, the technical quality of his work indicates why she should be.
She talks about his writings being without venom and hate, a contention that is debatable but with which I will not quibble. She tells us that he has made great financial sacrifice to come home because she is sure that his income in the USA is greater than that which he earns here. Ms. Alli is clearly privy to the details of Dr. Persaud’s salaries, both here and in the USA, or she would not be “sure” that he has been making a financial sacrifice; her word! There is no uncertainty here!
I just want to advise her that it may be for this very reason that she could be summoned in the near future to provide information to a body akin to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which must be set up (if we do our work right) to look into a number of issues of national concern, including how the PPP and the PNC have used taxpayers’ money in Guyana during their time in office.
I also wish to remind her that during her testimony she will be under oath, and that perjury could land one in prison; which brings us to the substantive and essential point of her letter.
Ms. Alli is of the view that “it is to the benefit of the Guyanese people that Randy Persaud is writing to the press.” Let us quickly examine the implications of her statement.
Persaud writes in support of, and sells the policies of the PPP to the Guyanese people and he answers directly to Mr. Jagdeo who (was) is his boss. (I am uncertain of his status because I have not heard or read of a resignation being tendered and accepted by Mr. Jagdeo, so I seek clarification.)
Guyanese know what these policies have produced in the post Cheddi Jagan era of PPP rule. The following is just a small, albeit significant, sampling of the achievements of the PPP during this period and which Randy Persaud supports in his writing.
The PPP government has institutionalised the narcotics trade and incorporated it into our formal economy. Put another way, our economy now depends on income from the production and trade of illegal drugs to maintain its sustainability.
Internationally recognised economist, Dr. Clive Thomas, has researched and written extensively on this issue and his conclusions support my contention. Like Dr. Persaud, Dr. Thomas’ conclusions are also “based on facts and figures”. Ms. Alli is justifiably reassured by facts and figures so unless she is a hypocrite she has little choice but to give credence to what Dr. Thomas has been saying to us in this regard. If she questions the efficacy of Dr. Thomas’ work I am “sure” that she can find trained economists in the PPP who can help her test the validity of his findings if she is not able to do so herself. She need not look far and wide.
The President of the country can help her in this respect. He has a degree in economics from a prestigious Eastern European university and I am “sure” that he has given this issue deep thought, if only because he is the President! He only quite recently made public pronouncements on it.
We now hold the dubious distinction of being the country in the Caribbean with the highest number (per capita) of unsolved murders in the last 10 years. Simply put, we are now the unsolved-murders capital (per capita) of the region! What makes this realisation even more appalling is that most of these were committed in the ensuing criminal unrest after the February 23, 2002 escape from prison of the infamous gang of five and the emergence of the underground armed anti-government movement in the backlands of Buxton, Annandale, and Friendship villages on the East Coast of Demerara.
There were allegations of the PPP government’s involvement and complicity in the spate of extra judicial killings and other criminal activity during this period. It would do us good to refresh our collective memories about some of these events which are relevant to my discussion.
Brothers Shafeek and George Bacchus of upper Princes Street were murdered and as more information emerged it pointed to an association between George Bacchus and the Government of Guyana. George Bacchus claimed that Shafeek’s death was due to mistaken identity since he was sure that the assassins’ bullets were meant for him.
He explained that he was privy to information that Ronald Gajraj, the Minister of Home Affairs, was the de facto Commandant of a shady but real Phantom Squad which he alleged was created by the PPP Government to hunt down and eliminate all persons suspected of being responsible for specific types of criminal activity. George Bacchus was brutally silenced a few days before he was scheduled to give evidence to a Commission of Inquiry which Mr. Jagdeo, under intense regional and international pressure, reluctantly appointed to investigate his government’s alleged involvement in these extra-judicial killings.
It was this set of circumstances that gave birth to our own Axelgate, named after Axel Williams, an admitted associate/informant of Ronald Gajraj, and who was himself gunned down during this period. Word on the road indicates that he was silenced on instructions issued by his former “employers”. Allegations of government’s involvement in extra-judicial killings were given further credibility when it was revealed during the trial of Shaheed “Roger” Khan in the USA that surveillance laptop equipment seized from Khan during the killing spree was acquired by him with the tacit approval of the Guyana Government and direct involvement of Minister of Health, Leslie Ramsammy who it is claimed, facilitated its purchase.
The evidence surfacing during the trial substantiated earlier statements from Khan himself that his involvement in eliminating criminals responsible for the crime spree in Guyana was a government-approved public service initiative on his part. Hard evidence also surfaced at the trail incriminating Ramsammy in wrong-doing.
Of course, the PPP government has denied any involvement despite compelling evidence presented in Judge Irizarry’s court in New York. Ramsammy is still Minister of Health. Stemming from these two separate though interrelated set of circumstances, it is my opinion that just as its approach to governance facilitated the institutionalisation of the narco industry in Guyana, the PPP government’s approach to and alleged involvement in the post 2002 crime spree facilitated the institutionalisation of the lawlessness which now pervades the national landscape.
Some will say that Burnham and the PNC subverted the integrity of the GPF during his rule and I will not dispute that. What I will say, however, is that this subversion by Burnham was seasonal, opportunistic and non-institutionalised. Never did we descend into the miasmic swamp of lawlessness that is now suffocating our efforts to build a healthy society based on a set of values which among other things guarantees security, protection and justice for all citizens.
The answer once again lies in the approach of the PPP regime to governance (read that to mean manipulation) of this most critical institution. I will not go into details but suffice it to say that over the years, the PPP has manipulated this institution to the extent that it is now emasculated and a shell of its former self.
The result of this emasculation has left us with a force which is now feared, covertly disrespected and held in contempt by the average citizen in the country.
How does all this relate to Ms. Alli’s letter? Well, she wants us to believe that Randy Persaud’s writing is good for the Guyanese people. Since the purpose of his writing is to sell the policies of the PPP government it is clear that she also wants us to believe that these policies are good for the country, implicit in which is that the outcomes of these policies are good for Guyana.
Hubert Wong

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