The PPP general secretary and everyday crime

Oct 19, 2014 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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Hopes that Clement Rohee’s appointment as General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on 19th August 2013 would lead to his removal from office as Minister of Home Affairs have faded.
Donald Ramotar had given as his own reason for demitting office as PPP General Secretary, his realization that working as both President and General Secretary had become too onerous for him. He felt that the PPP needed someone who could dedicate more time to the party, while he (Ramotar) paid more attention to running the country. This encouraged him to support Rohee’s appointment.
Rohee, when asked at the time whether he (Rohee) would retain his portfolio as Minister of Home Affairs as well as General Secretary given the demands of the public security sector, responded “that is something that we will obviously have to look at some time down the road.”
That time has come. The country is now “down the road.” Rohee, like Ramotar before him, cannot perform both tasks. As elections approach, the Minister seems to be spending more time at press conferences, lambasting the Guyana Elections Commission, lamenting the registration process and labouring to  rebuild his broken party than paying attention to the deteriorating security situation.
Rohee has been taking care of the Party. No-one has been taking care of the public security sector. It is no surprise, therefore, that there has been an alarming surge in the rate of violent crime ¯ especially armed robbery, murder, suicide, rape, road and river deaths, piracy and other inter-personal violence.
The Guyana Police Force, for which Rohee has ministerial responsibility, occasionally releases partial statistics on violent crime. The data published last week for the period 1st January to 30th September 2014 are incomplete but, nevertheless, point to a dangerous deterioration in the state of human safety. Both the President and Minister of Home Affairs have been silent on the current surge in violent crimes over that period (January-September 2014).
The Police reported that there had been an increase of 15 per cent in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms and a two per cent increase in armed robberies in which instruments other than firearms were used. The rate of ‘robbery under arms’ increased by 11 percent. Fatalities resulting from road traffic accidents surged to 100 compared to 75 fatalities for a similar period in 2013.
Data for suicide, however, are not usually made available by the Police. Former Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy had reported that approximately 180-200 people die as a result of suicide every year. Guyana, with 26.4 suicides per 100,000 people (2006), is said to have the fourth highest suicide rate in the world. In terms of homicide, one hundred and seven persons have been murdered compared to 100 for a similar period last year.
Data for rape, similarly, are not usually made available. The US Department of State’s Report on Human Rights calculated that, during 2012, authorities charged 102 persons for the crime of rape. Only 28 of these were convicted; 89 persons were charged with statutory rape and four were convicted.  Several non-governmental organisations recently launched public protests to call attention to official attitudes to reports of the rape and sexual assault of indigenous women in the hinterland.
Data for piracy attacks, like those for suicide and rape, are not usually made available. The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) reported 12 deaths and the disappearance of eight persons ‘lost at sea’ as a result of marine accidents and violent attacks by pirates on fishermen and other marine workers during the first half of 2014.  A Surinamese government official criticised Guyana’s response to piracy stating that, “Pirates come from Guyana and are deliberately targetting their countrymen who illegally fish in Suriname, knowing that they cannot turn for help to the Surinamese authorities.” Decomposed bodies have occasionally been found on the river banks, suggesting that victims had been killed and dumped overboard.
Violent crime is sucking the oxygen out of economic development. Guyana is becoming an increasingly dangerous country while the Minister of Home Affairs functions as his party’s election campaign manager.
The United Nations Development Programme’s Caribbean Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security Report 2012 identified Guyana as a country affected by high levels of crime that is hindering development.
That Report  confirmed the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Crime, Violence and Development: Trends, Costs and Policy Options in the Caribbean Report of 2007 that noted that high rates of crime and violence in the Caribbean are undermining growth, threatening human welfare and impeding social development.
The PPPC administration must provide greater protection for citizens from violent crime. The public security situation in Guyana today demands the undivided attention of a full-time minister. The nation has been paying a high price for Rohee’s distraction. The President and his Minister of Home Affairs must explain to the nation exactly how they intend to stop the surge in violent crime. If Rohee cannot do two jobs, let him choose one.

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