Why attempt to spin the facts when ordinary people’s lives are at stake?

Oct 08, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
When Minister Clement Rohee stood up and told the Private Sector Commission in late August that “there is no threat to national security”, someone from the audience should have told him to sit down and sock it.  Why?  Because he failed the nation as the Home Affairs Minister, to set up a functional long-term strategic approach to proactively mitigate the upsurge in violent crime in Guyana under his tenure ship.
In his “la la” world, he is under the perception that “there is no increase in violent crime” (his words), but this is furthest from the truth.  Under the watch of the Jagdeo regime, Guyana is on target to achieve an average rate of two murders every five days and many of these are caused by violent bandits who carry out their business without fear of the law enforcement agencies.  This is not a record to be proud of and this may not be a threat to the security of the henchmen and close business associates of the Jagdeo regime, but this is a clear and present threat to the working people and peasant class of this country.  Even Police Commissioner Henry Greene had to accept that as at the end of August there were 96 murders as compared to 77 for the comparable period in 2009.  What a shame that the Minister is attempting to spin the facts when ordinary peoples’ lives are at stake.  In the words of the little girl from Fort Wellington, Berbice, who must be traumatized at the hand of armed bandits, she said “daddy, bandit a kill mammy”.
To support my position with facts, I looked at the Guyana Chronicle and the SN for an observation of the details on the armed robberies between February and September 2010.  What I found was most shocking. The SN alone had over 10 pages of search results when I typed in “armed robbery in 2010”.  As a result of space constraint in the papers, I am only able to reveal a sub-set of the comprehensive results. I have not even looked at the Kaieteur News which has the unenvied reputation of being on top of the crime stories in Guyana. This sub-set of the results is outlined in the table below and neither Minister Rohee nor President Jagdeo can deny these facts: (See table) Minister Rohee has been furthest from reality when he stated that the Joint Services are “all up to speed to deal with any threat to the stability of the State”.  Goat really bite some people in Guyana!
What is his definition of the State?  Is he referring to Pradoville, State House, Office of the President, Camp Ayanganna, Eve Leary, the Ministry of Home Affairs Compound and of course his private residence? For his education I will venture into defining the term “State”.  The Oxford Dictionary defines the State as the legal/political community that comprise the people and the territory that is governed by a government.  Most importantly a State consists of all its people. The last time I checked, the majority of the people are exposed to a clear and present threat to their security and thus by extension the state is unstable and is under threat.  The nation in 2010 is not under threat in a PNC regime, but under a PPP regime and the last 10 years under President Jagdeo has resulted in the people being exposed to their worst state of instability not even comparable to the House of Israel days.  As my chart above shows, Guyanese, including the young are being maimed and terminated by dark forces while Minister Rohee and his security forces are unable to prevent the merciless destruction of their lives.
I want to remind Minister Rohee that the PPP in its 2006 manifesto promised to “create a SWAT Team to fight serious crime”.  To date this remains an undelivered promise.  Need I say more?  Shall I also allude to the other un-kept promises made to the Guyanese population in 2006 by the PPP such as “using the best international expertise to assist the fight against crime”?  Why then did we chase the UK Government Security Project out of Guyana?  Was the Jagdeo Regime afraid that the Scotland Yard will reveal the invisible hands that are centrally directing the crime in Guyana?  Was the Jagdeo Regime afraid that Scotland Yard will reveal that the PNC is not the political sponsors of this centrally directed crime spree in Guyana? Was the Jagdeo Regime afraid that the Scotland Yard will reveal who ordered the hit on Sash Sawh and the connection of this crime to a certain convicted criminal in the custody of the US Government?  Is the Jagdeo Regime afraid that the Scotland Yard will reveal the connection the narco-criminal gangs/ domestic terrorists have to a certain political party?
Now I expect the spinners in that dark office in Office of the President to do a Shane Warne on these facts.  As Patrick Moynihan said, “everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts since no amount of spin can change the facts”.  Over to the spinners in Office of the President, the Contances, the Dalys and the Morgans. Try the truth for once; it may work with the Guyanese people this time since they are on to you and your miasma.
Sasenarine Singh

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