Dear Editor,
I join with the President and all who express disbelief and horror at the murder of Dweive Kant Ramdass. It is the kind of crime which sullies not only army personnel, but Guyana.
I have oft-times noted that among the Discipline Forces we have some of the finest officers – men and women serving with distinction, sometimes in difficult circumstances. I, therefore, emphatically condemn the brutality committed on Ramdass, and again urge those many decent officers to maintain a high level of service and rectitude.
I have noticed that the army has now set out a list of dos and donts. As I understand it, this in any disciplined organization is Standard Operating Procedure. But I go beyond the men and women in uniform. When the administration or the political directorate instructs men who are trained and equipped to do military work to perform other duties as we have seen over the past few years, you blur the line that should be drawn between work of the army and the responsibility of the police.
We must not, and cannot rationalize criminality by anyone, but when we sit by in a society where our leaders pretend to be unaware of massive drug cartels and corruption, and deploy the army with big boots and guns to “rough up” or torture defenceless young men in certain communities, then you signal and leave ajar the door to anarchy and lawlessness.
It would be more useful if those in authority wiped their crocodile tears and addressed the fundamental issue of a breakdown in law and order. The lesson set at the highest level of immoral behaviour ought not to be ignored, or else we indulge in a time-wasting exercise.
Don’t tell us of a hostile media and what is happening in other countries and miss the opportunity to repair the torn fabric of our society. People are looking on. Who is to judge’?
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green JP
