New Minister of Home Affairs

Oct 08, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – New Minister of Home Affairs, Oneidge Walrond, is going where her predecessors went during their time at the helm. May she reap better results with the Guyana Police Force (GPF). She succeeds in making progress with the GPF, and citizens will remember her appreciatively.

Minister Walrond has rappelled right into the middle of the GPF mass of troubles, with words that conveyed the right messages. Considering the records of past Ministers of Home Affairs, the issue is how much headway she will make. For her part, the minister started out on the right note, dived into the heart of the GPF’s challenges. “Corruption must be dealt with firmly. Show zero tolerance. Do not look the other way. Be fearless in confronting it.” Those were Minister Walrond’s words to the senior leadership of the GPF, as released by the Ministry of Home Affairs. “Deal with” this destructive issue to the integrity and image of the GPF, and which strikes a blow to the confidence of the nation at large. The minister was highlighting corruption, which has left the professionalism of the GPF in shreds, and reduced it to exploitation by a variety of sources. It is easy to say, but the history of the GPF and those who stand over it, confirms how difficult it has been to implement on the ground the anticorruption speeches that are now part of the fabric of Guyana.

“Leadership must be by example. If discipline is weak at the top, it will collapse below. Tighten discipline, strengthen performance, and rebuild trust,” was another quote from Minister Walrond. We at this paper hope that the zeal for positive change that the minister projects doesn’t become jaded and diminished, as time goes by, and as she comes to grip with what is now in her hands. What kind of leadership could the GPF be able to boast about? Senior officers have been in the middle of developments that have stunned law-abiding citizens. Police personnel stopped and questioned at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. One senior policeman hit with multiple charges alleging huge frauds. Another senior police officer, an area commander, is sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a matter involving 4.4 tons of cocaine. From this sampling of GPF woes at very senior levels, “leadership must be by example” sounds more like the cry of someone drowning in stormy waters, with nothing for a lifeboat.

Proceeding on the assumption that the other members at the highest levels of the GPF are untouched by taint not yet unearthed, there might be some room for Minister Walrond to deliver. But what if that is not the situation, and corrupt practices form the backbone of GPF culture and operations? What example is set then for those ranks on the lower rungs of the GPF as an institution, and as a viable presence in the fight against corruption and crime?

The minister has to know from her Cabinet briefings that the state of Guyana’s leading crimefighting organisation is in need of serious overhaul, that only decisive leadership will bring about the entity-wide changes that are needed. She showed her hand slightly, with “This is the moment for decisive leadership. The people will not wait, and neither will I.” The people have been waiting for ages, and they are looking to new Home Affairs Minister Walrond to decide for themselves whether she is about regular politics, or could be that fresh breath of change so direly needed. If it turns out that she is all about words, and little of enforcement action, then Guyanese have been there before, and will just learn to lick their wounds in silence.

There is near certainty about the presence of corruption inside the GPF. What the police have in its favour is uncertainty about how deep and widespread the corrupt practices are. From drug running to traffic enforcement to noise pollution to overall crimefighting endeavours, the wrong side of the leading national enforcement body comes under the sharpest scrutiny. Too often, the GPF is made into an object for harsh criticisms. The sad fact is that all those are based on its sicknesses, many failures.

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Editorial, Guyana Police Force, Home Affairs, Oneidge Walrond

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