Ramjattan is failing

Oct 20, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
The current crisis in Guyana’s security sector, with the recent escape of three prisoners from the Lusignan prison, has again gripped the nation in a frenzy of fear – not irrational but justifiable fear.
From corner to corner of Guyana, practically on a daily basis, there are stories emanating of violent crimes, especially armed robberies and murder in the act of the commission of such crimes. These people have to live. They have bodily needs that they have to fulfill, and they have a history of wresting from their victims, the wherewithal of those needs by any means possible.
The average Guyanese – to the extent the poorest of the poor, i.e., the elderly pensioners and single-parent households, have been targeted to provide for those needs.
The tears of the nation are flowing to rival the floods decimating nations worldwide; but these are rivers of blood flowing from eyes that are drenched with the pain from hearts wounded to unbearable proportions by the loss of loved ones most often in the prime of their lives.
They were brutally taken by the beasts in human form who while robbing persons of their property, cash and other resources, have no qualms of robbing them of their lives also. And in equal measure the curses of the nation against Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan are escalating, along with strident calls for his removal as head of the nation’s security services.
A country’s security sector bears the most responsibility for the protection of all citizens from criminal elements; thus, anyone tasked with the mandate of managing this vital sector should prove, over time, meritorious in the functionality and efficiency of the various arms of government comprising his portfolio.
However, from the inception of the appointment of Khemraj Ramjattan as Security Minister, there has been one critical incident after another that compromised the nation’s safety.
Thus, calls are escalating, even from his own party’s supporters that he should to the Honourable thing, resign, because he has clearly failed to deliver on his primary mandate – to protect the nation and formulate policies that would strengthen the various arms under his watch.
The Guyanese have noted that the Minister defends the indefensible and excuses himself with one ridiculous postulation after another, when the fact is that he is unable to perform as security minister to expectations.
There may be many flaws in the system; but the fact of the matter is that the buck stops at Ramjattan. His uttering on numerous occasions, while acknowledging the fact, blame his performance and ascribes same to departmental heads under his watch.
Heads are rolling after the recent fiasco at Lusignan Prison, and the first that must go, according to popular opinion, is that of AFC Khemraj Ramjattan.
There is absolutely no confidence in him by the public as the head of the security services in Guyana. He himself admitted that he has no solution to Guyana’s security problems, with the ridiculous suggestion of placing them in vessels in the middle of the ocean.
Even if this was said satirically, this is not a time for levity because the victims and all Guyanese want surcease where they can live without the constant fear of attacks by murderous criminals.
However, his ego does not predispose him to doing the right thing and resigning his current portfolio, which is evident from his assertion at a press conference following the latest jailbreak and disturbance at the Lusignan Prison.
“I am here because I indeed wanted to help in the security sector. It is unfortunate that this thing has happened under my stewardship and indeed it is a bad thing, if I may say so, but resignation is not a word that I am normally associated with.”
Regards,
Alister Charlie
PPP/C MP
Region 9

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