Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, President Bharrat Jagdeo, yesterday called on army officers to go not only after criminals with high powered weapons but to also focus on drug dealers, money launderers and people who steal from the Treasury.
Combined, he said, they “sap the life of our society.”
Addressing the opening of the Guyana Defence Force officers conference at Camp Ayanganna, President Jagdeo while commending the officers of the joint services on their success in eliminating the Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang cautioned that they should not become complacent because there will “constantly be a battle between the state and criminal enterprises.”
He warned that criminal enterprises come in all “forms and shapes” and as such they should not only take notice of the marauding groups with high powered weapons but also those who are involved in other forms of crimes. He urged that they be vigilant in their battle against all the groups of criminal elements since they affect the country’s development potential, adding that one of the duties of a state is to ensure that its people can make progress without having to worry about their security.
“The `Fineman’ Rawlins gang is no longer terrorising the people of this country and this was because of good work done by many soldiers and policemen and other members of the security forces. And I wish to commend all of you for the work done in this area,” he said to applause from the officers.
He described last year’s dangerous crime situation, which saw three massacres, as a “meltdown in law and order” as it appeared at that time that a criminal gang had the upper hand in “our society.” And the work of the joint services was good in dealing with the criminals last year, the president noted, and now he expects that they would continue the fight and improve on the collaboration among those who make up the joint services.
The president urged that during the deliberations they pay attention to fighting economic crime “outside of going after criminals just maybe the ones that are bit more aggressive and more visible but also I would welcome your ideas about how we can better tackle smuggling and tax evasion… and tackling money laundering, narco-trafficking, the impact on our society.”
In a speech that lasted over an hour he spoke at length on the global financial crisis and climate change.
The president told the officers that he likes to speak on a wide range of issues when addressing them because “I think we have some of the smartest people in the security forces and at this officers level compared to the armies around the region we stack very well at the intellectual level.”
Meanwhile, President Jagdeo announced that within his office they are working together with the army and police heads and the Ministry of Home Affairs in crafting a comprehensive national defence policy strategy. He said the strategy will be a multi-stakeholder approach that is a “very exciting venture.”
And while persons may question why only now such a venture is being taken the president said that there are many “solid components that are already in place but we need to now integrate these different components into a productive mode and it is that process we are involved in at this point and time.”
Parliament will be involved in the process at the appropriate time as defence and security matters are within the realms of the executive but according to the president the legislative hand of the government should also have an input in the strategy at the macro-level but not at the operational level.
According to the president they have in the past suffered from lack of coordination “or clear establishment of the linkages between different components.” Those components that need to be pulled together are the yet-to-be implemented drug master plan, the plan for the improvement of the criminal justice system and the plan to develop forensic and investigative capabilities within the police force.
“Child’s play”
During his speech the head of state also took a swipe at the parliamentarians involved in the ongoing budget debate as he described some of the arguments as “child’s play” which are not focusing on any real issues.
“Frankly speaking I am absolutely disappointed, absolutely disappointed [in the budget debate], people are talking about Guyanese prostituting themselves in Barbados and some frivolous things, some koker attendant not showing up on time and they lose sight of the big picture.”
“So many of our speakers have lost sight of the big picture and even when the suggestions are made, in a peripheral way, in a passing way as to how we should respond to this global [financial] crisis it’s done flippantly, by the way.”
He told the officers that many of the parliamentarians are calling for the reduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) without demonstrating how it could be an effective response to the financial crisis.
He urged the officers to pay attention to what is happening in parliament because the legislators are the ones who are supposed to work with the executive to ensure that the country continues to be transformed.
Tracing the road that led to the financial crisis, President Jagdeo said that should a response be crafted in Guyana to deal with that it would have to be focused on the same issues that affect the developed world, more so the United States. “I’m saying these things to you because I wish you would read a bit more about them and I hope that the debate in our society would be elevated from one where we talk about koker attendant to a real response to what is taking place in the world. We don’t want (just) any response, we want a response that will work,” the president asserted.
According to the president this year’s budget is a response to the financial crisis. He said the crisis would affect the country in a few ways, “through less remittances and there is very little we can do about that because the remittances are earned by the people abroad, if they lose their jobs they would send less remittances.” The president also said Guyana cannot do anything about the cost of borrowing internationally but luckily for the country it does not do much of its borrowing on commercial terms.
“So when I hear the Leader of the Opposition [Robert Corbin] say reduce the value added tax, I am thinking so if we reduce the value added tax we run a bigger fiscal deficit because you are reducing revenue, no one likes to pay taxes but there is a purpose for paying taxes… So you shrink the revenue further and then he says spend more…”
“This is why I have argued there is no balance in the debate, it is done… as though it is child’s play, they are throwing out ideas just like that without any attempt to analyse the impact on the macro-variables or the development prospects of this country.”
He urged the officers to read more about the issues he spoke on and to do better than the country’s parliamentarians. He also called on them to deal with the impact of the global financial crisis and climate change during their deliberations in the conference.
‘Integrity testing’
President Jagdeo asked the officers also to address the issue of ‘integrity testing’ and mentioned the lie detector tests that CANU officers recently took and those who failed were sent packing. He said that the polygraph test would be extended to other sensitive areas of government “so that people who serve in some of these areas. . . know that this would be an essential feature of their work.”
The president said that while a big deal was made about the tests being done in Guyana, it is done routinely in other parts of the world.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Henry Greene was later asked if he was willing to take a lie detector test and he quickly said he did not have an issue with taking a test.
He stated that he is sure that police officers in some sections of the force, such as narcotics, would eventually have to undergo the tests as is done in other parts of the world. He pointed out that in other countries before officers take up such positions they have to undergo lie detector tests.
