PPP Parliamentarian says Minister Ramjattan has failed to impress

Nov 08, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Repeatedly, the People’s Progressive Party has made calls for the PNC to return the weapons that were issued to the Ministry of Mobilisation and National Development by the Guyana Defence Force between 1976 and 1979. But so far, Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan and the PNC Leader, President David Granger remain unresponsive.
The much touted gun amnesty programme has ended after a 6-week nationwide campaign aimed at getting illegal weapons off the streets to reduce the soaring gun-related crime rate. It netted a total of 186 illegal firearms, but most of those were previously used by our indigenous Amerindian brothers for hunting food and protecting their families and livestock from dangerous wild animals in isolated hinterland areas, far away from police protection.
When one considers that none of these weapons was used to commit a crime, it is difficult for anyone to proclaim this campaign a success. The criminals that were the real target of this operation still have guns and continue to drive fear in our communities, ruthlessly killing, beating and robbing their innocent, defenseless victims into submission. Our Amerindians brothers were tricked in believing that by handing over the rifles they use for hunting, they would be able to recover those guns by applying for firearm license. This will not happen.
If a pack of wild ferocious pitt bulls were known to attack and terrorize residence of a community, and when the police are called in, they only succeed in seizing a few other stray dogs that innocently wander the streets looking for food. Would you consider the operation a success? I doubt you would too. So Minister Ramjattan can brag all he wants about the so called “success” of the gun amnesty, but all he managed to get was a few stray dogs while the pit bulls continue to roam free, attacking and killing the most vulnerable among us.
At an APNU+AFC campaign rally held at Stelling Road, Rosignol on May 2 this year, the then Presidential candidate, David Granger told his supporters, “You need a warrior to destroy the monster of criminality in this great region… We must put an end to banditry and murder in this region.” Then he gave us Khemraj Ramjattan, who now asks the nation to have patience while he gets his act together. But if Granger had really wanted to destroy the “monster of criminality”, he would have instructed the PNC to return the missing GDF weapons during the firearm amnesty. Now it seems that some criminal elements are in possession of those guns and our Public Security Minister is powerless to confront his senior collation partner for fear of wanting to go after some of the very supporters who put them in office. Minister Ramjattan has a difficult job… He must be a very frustrated man. He is the head of a ministry that is failing the people he pledged to protect… the citizens of Guyana. He is one Minister that should be ashamed to accept a salary increase from the very taxpayers he’s incapable of protecting. But I can truly empathize with my fellow Parliamentarian for I believe his hands may be tied. If Ramjattan dares to turn up the heat on these criminal gangs, he may very well discover the source of the missing GDF weapons.
Indo-Guyanese families and businesses are the ones mostly targeted by these criminals. Previously safe communities in Regions 5 and 6 are now under constant attacks by bandits who feel it is now their God-given right to invade the sanctity of these people’s homes, take away their hard earned valuables, leaving behind pools of blood and emotional scars that would last a lifetime. Surely this must be very disturbing to Minister Khemraj Ramjattan who had given these people his assurance that his government will be the key to unlocking the nation “from the deadly crime that haunts and traumatizes” the nation.
Kaieteur News editorial of November 5th, had this to say, “It has been almost six months since the new Minister of Public Security in the form of Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan was sworn in. Mr. Ramjattan portrays himself as tough on crime, but words are the wind when there are real victims involved. The results are not good enough to conclude that the job is getting done; the fact remains it is not getting done! The crime statistics from January – September 2015 show that there were 896 “reported” robberies under arms. There were 114 murders committed for the period January – September 2015; a 100 percent increase in execution styled murders compared to the same period in 2014.  Mind you, in portions of 2015, there was an extended gun surrender amnesty. So what can we expect in November and December 2015 when there is no gun amnesty?”
This critical analysis comes on the heel of an article written two days earlier by Kaieteur News columnist, Peeping Tom. This is how he describes the escalating crime situation in the country: “Businesses are being robbed at gunpoint. Workers are being pistol-whipped in the course of these robberies. Customers are being deprived of their belongings during these robberies. Homes are being invaded and the occupants beaten. Businesses are being robbed. When you go into a shop these days you are tempted to make your purchase quickly because you do not know if while you are there some bandit will come in and rob the place and you in the process.
Guyanese are locking their gates and their doors and retiring before its gets dark. They are fearful. This is not the way people should be living in Guyana. The criminals are curtailing the freedom of citizens. The people who voted for change did not expect this state of affairs under the new government. Expectations were high that the new government would cause a reduction in crime.  This has not happened. Tackling crime was supposed to be a major priority of the new administration. They came to power on the basis that people were living in fear because crime had got out of control. Five months since the elections, crime is still out of control and there is no sign of improvement.” With all the former top police and army professionals now employed as Presidential Advisors, this government surely have the ability and capacity to stop this senseless killings. But the question remains… Do they have the political will to do so? After all, the mantra that has now become the official slogan of the APNU+AFC is, “We running things now!”
Harry Gill
Member of Parliament

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