ETHNIC BALANCING OF THE GUYANA POLICE FORCE

Jan 13, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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In 1964, East Indians comprised just over half of the population of Guyana, while Africans were just under one third of the population. Yet, more than seventy per cent of the Guyana Police Force was African and just under twenty per cent, East Indian.
The situation has not got any better since Independence. It was therefore not surprising to read recently that the Guyana Police Force has been unable to meet the recommendations of the Disciplined Services Commission in relation to ethnic balancing of the Guyana Police Force.
But the Guyana Police Force cannot be held responsible for this serious failure. This is a question of policy and specifically national policy and it is therefore for the government to answer as to why close to fifty years after the International Commission of Jurists recommended a more concerted effort to attract East Indians into the Guyana Police Force this has not happened.
And years after the Disciplined Services Commission recommendations concerning ethnic balancing it has not been fulfilled.
The victims must also not be blamed. The usual suspects have in the past attempted to do this by inferring that East Indians are not interested in joining the security services. But no one has asked why. And no one has gone specifically to those East Indians who were once members of the security services and asked them about their own impressions and the degree to which the internal culture of these organizations have acted as a discouragement and a disincentive to attract greater East Indians recruits.
And just how exactly are persons recruited? The International Commission of Jurists had made specific recommendations on this question, arguing for the need for a balanced panel to consider the issue of recruits? If a group feels that the process of recruitment is likely to be biased against it, the members may be disinclined to even apply.
How are promotions decided at the lower levels? Are these decided by the police hierarchy and then sent to the Police Service Commission for endorsement? If certain groups feel that there is likely to be discrimination in awarding promotions especially the lower levels this too can act as a disincentive for persons from those groups to apply.
Given the accepted need for ethnic balancing of the security services what is needed is a three prong approach to this issue. The first is for those East Indians who have been in the security services to share their own experience as to how they felt while in the service and why some of them left before retirement. This is an important dialogue that can shed light on the possible causes for the ethnic imbalance in the security services.
The second prong has to be a deliberate policy and deliberate measures to encourage ethnic balancing of the security forces. In other words there has to be some form of affirmative action taken as a means of redressing the ethnic imbalance in the security services.
The problem here is that one gets the distinct impression that the PPP is not really interested in ethnic balance in the security services. One gets the impression that the party sees the issue of ethnic balance as fueling ethnic insecurity within the security sector as well as in the wider society and they are quite prepared to allow for the present situation to continue indefinitely.
In other words, the PPP of 1964 which was pressing for ethnic balance in the security services has now adopted a different approach. It is afraid that if it moves too earnestly on this issue of ethnic balance that the security services may topple them.
The PPP therefore seems more interested in a political trade off than in pursuing the just cause of ethnic balancing of the security sector. They will not pursue a deliberate policy of ethnic balancing of the security services. In return, they will avoid having to raise ethnic tensions amongst members of the security services, thus mitigating any possible extra- constitutional toppling of the government.
The problem with this approach is that it is the citizenry who pay a high price because ironically the very failure of the government to deliberately pursue ethnic balancing of the security services triggers ethnic insecurity amongst East Indians and that cannot be good for any multi-ethnic society.
Since however it is recognized that ethnic balancing of the security services is an issue that bears heavily on ethnic security in the society, the third prong therefore is to address this issue in the wider context of creating greater ethnic security for all.
This unfortunately is a task that has evaded all of our leaders since Independence. And there is nothing to suggest that anything, notwithstanding the platitudes and promises in election season, will change any time soon.

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