We live in a civilized society with no State protection for wrongdoers

Jun 17, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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Campaigners seem to be writing their scripts already for the 2020 General and Regional elections, and as is expected, the rhetoric of the opposition has taken on the customary tone of belligerence.
Whatever they say, there is little to no doubt that the governing coalition is going about its business of restoring law and order; raising employment rates albeit incrementally; installing facilities for the most basic amenities like potable water and modern health facilities, especially in remote communities where they had not existed for decades; training young people here and abroad to lead their own enterprises and the Government’s agencies; and reducing the number of people operating outside the law, breaking every public financing rule purely for self enrichment.
Some of the old systems that allowed them to do so are still in place, but as soon as they are identified, they are changed or scrapped. Admittedly this is a long process, but it is being done.
Some of those perpetrators are already before the courts facing a slew of criminal charges like narcotics trafficking; human trafficking; theft and misappropriation of many billions in cash and state assets; discharging firearms in public places; high sea piracy; causing death by dangerous driving; assault and murder; and possession of unlicensed weapons. While many have been caught, numerous others are still under investigation.
Before the Coalition Government took office, too many criminals got away with slaps on the wrists after committing some horrible wrongs, but like we’ve said ad nauseum, when people are fed up, they are fed up. It is not often that the Caribbean region witnesses the kind of turnabout that Guyanese delivered in 2015, and Barbadians in 2018. It’s a signal. People are now aware of their power and they’re using it.
In Guyana, our experiences in the early years of the millennium were characterized by the worst kinds of violence in living memory. We witnessed violent criminal gangs in possession of large caches of high powered weapons and ammunition, bullet proof vests, high tech triangulation and listening devices and other murderous equipment.
Soon after the millennium dawned, a so-called ‘Phantom Squad’, is alleged to have held Guyana hostage for a good many years. People were shot down in the streets; police officers were stalked and killed, some in their homes with their families. The Police had no power and they walked the streets in civilian clothing. For the ordinary man, the sights and sounds of gun fights with laser bullets streaking pink across a clear afternoon sky will stay with us for a long time. We want no repeat, no replay.
No one dares to imagine what Guyanese are going to suffer if the then governing party takes back the reins of power in 2020, 2024 or later. There is still some amount of fear lurking, brought on by the knowledge that many people who operated in the Jagdeo-Ramotar era are still in play while the necessarily long, tedious investigations are going on. SOCU is not giving up though.
This is the era of the APNU-AFC Administration where law and order will rule.
Remember that Guyana, 3 short years ago, was labeled as a ‘drug transshipment point’ by international law enforcement. We haven’t heard or seen that label lately because SOCU is cleaning house.
There is no one in the corridors of ‘power’ ordering SOCU to back off, or to give back drugs to perpetrators, or to not bother them again or else they (the sleuths) would lose their jobs and be jailed on trumped up charges.
We remember a guest on a local television talk show a few years ago blurting out that laundered money from the narcotics trade had helped to create jobs in Guyana. That happened during the time when the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) was struggling to get Guyana to acknowledge their existence, and rid itself of its allegedly drug-funded parallel economy.
More recently in April 2018 the nation was very shocked to learn about the fishermen who had the most horrible experience while fishing off Suriname’s coast. They were brutally attacked by pirates and most of them died.
It is an undisputed fact that the Cabinet and the Public Security Ministry have applied a no-nonsense approach to crime and violence. The Police Force clearly believes that it is now free to operate within the boundaries of its Standard Operating Procedures without political interference. High and lower level operatives in the public sector are also aware that law enforcement will move against them if/when credible information surfaces about bribe-taking, corrupt transactions and other malfeasances.
The Police Force now has the backing of right-thinking, reasonable men and women in government who are determined to wash away Guyana’s old cultures that did no good for our people.

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