Minister Benn-prove sincerity, start demolition, clean-up

Aug 07, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

---

Kaieteur News – I deal with the ruff stuff, as usual, and in this instance, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn.  What others bypass, as usual, I dive into, head-on.  I am as one with Minister Benn breaking his peace and blasting away.  At the Guyana Police Force (police).  At the “endemic corruption, unprofessional conduct, and abysmal service standards” (Village Voice News, July 18,2024).  Sure, he speaks from a political position, but those do represent what Guyanese deal with frequently, if not daily and hourly, in exchanges with the police. It would be helpful to hear from one Guyanese who thinks differently of the police, holds it in a different light.  Minister Benn had earned a reputation as a feared ‘demolition man’, and he just retrieved that recently concealed part of his persona and modus operandi to denounce and demolish what goes on in the police.  I ponder this: for show, or ministerial seriousness.  Guyanese will know soon, observe the fruits of police cleanups.

Reality check: what is the level of confidence generated in citizens by the police?  Now chew on this answer: unless a card-carrying member of the PPP Kremlin, or a deep-pocketed, deeply connected citizen, trust and respect have been low and reaching for lower levels.  The few good men and women in the police are overshadowed and overwhelmed by the practices of the follies, failures, and farces of colleagues.  The higher one goes, the rawer could be the result.  On the head of a pin, frauds; on a button, the sum of the corruptions of which the honourable minister blew so much steam.  Is it not, in the picture painted by Minister Benn, not precisely so in reality?  My question, with a bit of the challenging still standing: who among Guyanese trusts the police, thinks the best of its members, other than a few known, proven professionals, luminous men and women of principle?  Who in Guyana, other than the president and his illustrious band of law-abiding comrades, do not brace themselves subconsciously when the long arm of the law is outstretched, like a claw?  Who does not wonder what it will be this time, when the longer teeth of law enforcement bite deeply, then still deeper like a fang?

Make no mistake, Minister Robeson Benn is as political as they come; more politburo inclined than the best (or worst) in his beloved PPP.  He is due a medal for his devotion to the cause.  Identically, there should be no doubt that political interference and control of the police are so pervasive and blatant that they have spiraled into issues beyond discussion and dispute.  Interference in and dominance of the police by the PPP Government are accepted facts of life in Guyana.  Minister Benn has had his role to play in those regards.  He has done well.

What I read and absorbed, however, was the minister speaking to less of the political at that 185^th anniversary gathering, and very much to the operational.  It would be inspiring to hear other ministers, the two top leaders in the ruling clique, speak with such powerful clarity on their portfolios.  The unambiguous words do not have anything of a poseur about them (unless he pretends).  They speak Guyanese truths, both inside the police and in the mean streets and offroad spots of Guyana where a certain kind of business is transacted.  In agreeing with Minister Benn’s unsentimental, unvarnished, and unsparing statement(s), due recognition is given to the “delicate balance” between police operational independence and seeming political intrusions, the damage they inflict. With all this fat talk about police fixing, SOCU couldn’t fix a flat tire, not even recognize one.  With that publicized, whoever wishes to challenge is free to do so.

Separately, I nod in full agreement to the concern about the PPP Government’s “weaponizing” of the police either to harass or to cow into silence those it considers to be non-supporters, opponents, parasites, and undesirables.  I can attest as an object of that police weaponizing practice, which continues.  Though disguised, it is detectable, and it is also noteworthy for the time and expense committed to do so continuously.  Here is some intelligence for the new head of Special Branch: those heavily tinted, black vehicles with lights off and parked for long hours with occupants locked inside are conspicuous for those who know what to look for, how to interpret.  The evidence has traveled beyond Guyana’s borders.

In closing, I accept that a nonpartisan approach is the only workable solution, the vital next step always avoided.  But if the leading national law enforcement institution in Guyana is ever to be given a chance to rise out of the ashes where it is now trapped and incinerated by a thousand burns, the nonpartisan it must be.  Too much government involvement now and before has paralyzed professional police administrators.  It is way past the time for police operations to emerge above the shadows of political meddling and the mangling hands of politicians.  Nonpartisan oversight for the Guyana Police Force would result in political creatures studying one another instead of stalking and stifling the police, and seeking to intimidate law-abiding citizens.  This is what has helped the police to deteriorate to the deplorable state it is in today.  Minister Benn: if there is sincerity and vigor for principle and professionalism, a better GPF could be had.  A better PPP government also could be.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

---

• demolish, Guyana Police Force (police), Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn, sincerity

---