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Police Reform
Editorial…
Kaieteur News- President Irfaan Ali has developed a reputation of saying the right things, what he believes Guyanese want to hear. He brims with energy, aims high, in promising Police Reform. Is he capable of delivering? Every honest, hardworking Guyanese want genuine police reform. Only when that happens, will Guyanese feel secure, begin believing again.
The concern that we at this publication have, is that the president is long on promises that strike a chord, but woefully short on delivering material improvements. Police Reform could be the kickstart that Guyanese need so desperately, and not just for ordinary street crimes. Guyanese want and need the kind of police reform that probes anywhere, follows wherever crime trails lead, regardless of how high in the government, in rich society, they go.
What kind of police reform the president envisions as an end product? Does police reform encompass the comprehensive and meaningful, or the superficial and what masks the rottenness in the Guyana Police Force (GPF), which then negatively impacts citizens? Who from where will be charged to lead the way, to be involved, in the intricate reengineering of the GPF? Should any of the names that the president keeps in his phone lists be involved in police reform, then it begins as a loser, will be a loser when that process is finished. When real police reform takes shape, is delivered, Guyanese will know the value they’re getting. They will see it happening, through less unsolved crimes, investigations that are not stifled or steered in a different direction, usually dead ends. Guyanese will know what police reform is when it is experienced on the street and poor villages, when there is reason for interaction in a police station.
President Ali’s own history comes back as his worst witness. He was the one, who promised transparency, but Guyanese live with a world of secrets. Access to information, as provided for by law, is a victim. Remarkably, he defends that lack of access, which gives impetus to a public servant to gloat that, in effect, the president has all but handed him a blank check to erect information firewalls, as he has done. There’s a blanket of secrets, one that is impenetrable, grows more mildewed by the moment, through the inaction that leads to atrophy.
Further, the president was the leader who promised accountability, and what did the nation get but coverups, what has many elements of a political protection racket. What do Guyanese know about what ExxonMobil is doing offshore, and what steps the government is taking to close the gaps? Why does the vice president, Bharrat Jagdeo, dig up all the old tricks from his book, plus some new ones, to pull the wool over the eyes of both the sensible and senseless in Guyana? When the president is tongue-tied and handcuffed on those two most vital of areas only, then he is not quite the fittest person to promise police reform of any kind to anyone.
The fact that refuses to go away is that the GPF has been used as a political football and a political whip by one government after the other, PPPC, PNCR, no exception. Police Reform that has meat to it will eliminate that, with no sacred cows. Unless President Ali and his government have the stomach for that standard, that reality, then it is a waste of time to promise Guyanese police reform. It is sweet for the president to discover that police reform has its merits. He has made many sweet promises before, only for Guyanese to grow increasingly bitter from the shams handed to them. An army of spin doctors has failed to instill confidence in Guyanese, because they see what they are getting: more spin. When the serious is in demand, the government has developed considerable skills in deceiving citizens.
The fact that the president is now all vigor about Police Reform at this particular time is not in his favor. The first impression is that he channels attention away from the government’s machinations that fed GPF corruptions. The other is that 2025 is an elections year, so promises come helter-skelter from the president, vice president, and others. The best start is reforming themselves first.
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