Dear Editor,
Based on the recent picketing of AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan’s office and other media stories aimed at discrediting the AFC, it appears that the PPP has placed the AFC in its crosshairs and views them as a credible threat to their march to re-election in 2011. This bodes well for the AFC as it lets the Guyanese people know that there is an electable alternative to their lack of trust and confidence in this Jagdeo administration and the morally bankrupt PPP.
What does it say about a nation when the citizenry is unnerved by those who don the uniforms of the GDF and the GPF? Is this the day I will be robbed of my life savings by someone in police or army uniform, or worse, lose my life? The strongest message this administration could signal to the nation that it cares about their security and wants to regain their trust is to relieve the Minister of Home Affairs and the Police Chief of their duties. Accountability matters.
The actions of rogue elements in the police and army reflect poorly on all and a new direction/leadership at the top will put all on notice that criminality and indiscipline that brings disrepute on these venerable institutions will not stand. Will this happen? It is highly unlikely. Responsible leaders know when they’re in over their heads. When crime spiralled out of control in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, they brought in help from the United States and Scotland Yard respectively. They fired and/or prosecuted the corrupt cops and increased the salary of police officers as a way to reduce the urge to ‘supplement’ meagre wages by engaging in corrupt behaviour. They invested in forensics and intelligence, tools that are at the forefront of crime solving.
It appears that whenever the notion of assistance from a reputable police agency is close to becoming a reality, suddenly the idea that the nation’s sovereignty cannot be yielded becomes sacrosanct. It is therefore not unreasonable to surmise that uncomfortable truths may be revealed by a dispassionate third party.
With all that has transpired on this government’s watch and which has brought Guyana to the place where it is today, the AFC can run on a platform of restoring trust and law and order and defeat the PPP. As attorneys, if Trotman and Ramjattan are as skilful as the United States attorneys who successfully prosecuted Roger Khan and Robert Simels in federal court in New York, then the blueprint is there. They methodically made their case by laying out the evidence for the jury.
In Guyana the facts are not in dispute; after seventeen years in office the PPP have been an abject failure given the corruption and incompetence, the use of torture by members of the joint services, and the allegations about links to a drug trafficker and phantom squads. The AFC must lay out the case for all Guyanese to see so that in 2011 in the general elections, their closing argument to the voters will result in a verdict against the PPP.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Jason
