That the word conscription has been uttered by President Jagdeo is the clearest evidence yet of how far the Lusignan massacre has pushed the decision makers of the country. In a programme on Friday on NCN Channel 11 deemed a `Special Interview’, the President lamented that volunteers for the army and police force were in short supply. He then said there is a discussion at the level of Cabinet about a position paper on conscription. A decision is yet to be made but if it was there would be discussions all across the country before a conclusion is arrived at.
A position paper is also possible on the right to bear arms as the President said he had been besieged by calls from citizens to be allowed to carry arms to protect themselves from killers like those who invaded Lusignan on January 26.
The President spent most of the interview, aided by very helpful prompting by his interviewers, trying to avoid responsibility for the circumstances that led to January 26. Unfortunately, some of his defensive positions were not grounded in reality.
One glaring one was that he had asked the international community for assistance in dealing with crime. He may have but it is certainly not the type that Guyanese have long been agitating for. In the nine years of his rule he has not attempted to do what has been done in Jamaica and is being done in other places like Trinidad, Antigua and St Lucia – bring in top, professional policemen for key posts in the force here. He tritely said that no country will send their policemen here. That is so, but Jamaica has hired senior policemen from the UK to spearhead key components of their crime fight. Results have been mixed but at least they raised the level of their game in the fight against criminals and their Operation Kingfish has had enormous success against crime gangs and the drug trade. As an aside, we are yet to prosecute a single drug lord or dismantle a major drug ring. The President needs to take heed of the security plan which has been devised with the help of the British that unless the drug trade is confronted crime reduction strategies cannot succeed or be sustained.
President Jagdeo has made no effort known to the Guyanese public to recruit overseas crime fighters for the police force. His one publicized effort recently to bring in a foreign expert was his ill-advised recruitment of the tainted ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to advise on police reforms. Despite widespread public condemnation of this recruitment, President Jagdeo clung tenaciously to his nominee until the whole arrangement disintegrated when Mr Kerik fell under the uncomfortable scrutiny of US federal prosecutors. No advisor has since been hired in the two years since he first raised the prospect.
President Jagdeo has simply not made sufficient efforts to mobilize foreign assistance for our police force. He seems content on keeping in place a discredited police hierarchy without instituting root and branch reforms to turn the tide against the criminals. His government was recently pressed again to consider the radical option that Guatemala has now bravely taken by enlisting the United Nations to aid in the prosecution of criminals. His government has already rejected that out of hand.
The President further sought to avoid responsibility for the present state of affairs when he said that orders had been given to the security forces to do what had to be done. When orders are given and they are not complied with or do not produce results then severe disciplinary or reform measures have to be instituted. President Jagdeo is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. As we have said before, the failings of the Joint Services are his and it is his responsibility to steer a course of law enforcement success.
During his special interview the President also lamented that people wanted security but that they were unwilling to encourage their children to enlist in the police force and army. It was at this point he raised the issue of conscription. One of the major quandaries has been ethnic balance in the police force and the army in particular. Had the President and his government taken seriously the involved labour of the Disciplined Forces Commission (DFC) report which addressed the issue of ethnic balance and recruitment we might have gotten somewhere over the last few years.
His government sat inexplicably on this report and a second attempt stimulated by the offer of British assistance has languished for months even though the Prime Minister himself is the chairman of the parliamentary committee.
Invaded
The President also lamented that there had been few takers for the hundreds of neighbourhood policing positions that his government recently announced. It must have now dawned upon him that the initiative was a poor idea and that under the present conditions no one wants to be recruited into the police force. Moreover, what chance would a community policing group and two neighbourhood policemen/women have against criminals like the band of killers who invaded Lusignan?
Pointing out that his government has now made a commitment of US$5M for recapitalization of the army and aerial support – this figure will likely only fund two helicopters – the President then declared that sacrifices would have to be made and people then couldn’t complain about roads or other such projects being neglected. The President is way off base. It is all a matter of priorities. On the cricket world cup the government spent a figure conservatively estimated at US$55M – 11 times what it now says it will be spending on assisting the army to provide security for around 730,000 citizens of this country. President Jagdeo should urgently commission a value for money audit of the stadium and the world cup expenditure so that the public can determine whether prudent decisions have been made with taxpayers’ money. Significant expenditures will now also be made this year on CARIFESTA – is there a budget that the public can be apprised of? Will the average Herstelling or Victoria person have to sacrifice their road for the CARIFESTA fete?
There were several other statements in the special interview worthy of comment but these would have to be reserved for later. Taking a broad swipe at the media, the President said it was obsessed with the issue of compensation for those in the backlands affected by the clearing. That is an unfair comment on his part. Most of the comments in the media have taken aim at the bull-in-the-china-shop approach that the government has taken towards the issue of compensation and the treatment of those who labour in the backlands.
At the bottom of it all, after nine years of his presidency, President Jagdeo has to take “special” blame for what transpired in Lusignan. Gunmen and gangsters have held the good citizens of Buxton hostage for six years. His government has failed astonishingly over two separate administrations, including the current one where the President has demonstrated his independence from Freedom House, to act. How much longer did he and his Joint Services need? That failure led to January 26, 2008 and the massacre of 11 innocents. Had the backlands of the East Coast been rid of the criminal scourge the victims of January 26 would have been alive today and this would all have been a horrible nightmare. Dozens of theories now abound at the moment about L11 and what was intended. The truth is that neither the government nor the joint services has the foggiest idea as to who was behind it and why. And this is why their spokesmen and ministers have so embarrassed themselves from running the entire gamut to explain L11: a racial attack to ordinary criminals to terrorists.
The President should answer these questions. Why 23 days after the massacre his security apparatus has failed to capture even one of those involved in this heinous crime? How much longer should the country wait? And if there is no success will he shake up the disciplined services and contemplate radical action like se
eking outside experts or Guatemala’s option?