After spending six years before a Special Parlia-mentary Select Committee, the review report of the recommendations made by the Disciplined Forces Commis-sion, was last evening unanimously passed by the National Assembly, prompting Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee to predict the continued modernization of the country’s disciplined services.
Prior to the report being adopted in the House, it was subject to an intense debate as the opposition members criticized the administration for its handling of security matters in the country, particularly as it related to extrajudicial killings.
Home Affairs Minister Rohee threw verbal punches at the opposition members for their negative comments about the country’s joint services saying that they were “playing to the gallery” in an attempt gain the sympathy of persons who had been affected by the shortcomings of the law enforcement agencies. “It is the flavour of the day to wallow in negativism and destructive criticism of the Forces who are vested with the authority under the law to uphold the public safety and security of the citizens in the country,” Rohee said. “Police bashing…is not going to get this country anywhere and those who…prefer to jump on the pedestal or the high horse of bashing the Guyana Police Force and all law enforcement agencies of this country…I believe will, in the not too distance future, regret that they ever took that position,” the minister continued.
The minister said that a lot had been done in police reform and the modernization of the Guyana Police Force. Of the 71 recommendations made by the Commission for the Police, seven of these have already been implemented, he told the House. He noted that several reports and recommendations on the security sector had been passed by the National Assembly and explained that these had been incorporated in the country’s IDB-funded Citizen Security Programme.
The motion to adopt the report was led by the Chairman of the Committee, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who noted the lengthy time it took to be completed. He, however, argued that the administration had not wasted time, since it had already begun to implement some of the reforms. The recommendations have been highlighted as containing some of keys to addressing concerns about national security. Hinds said that time did not stand still since the government was able to implement some of the recommendations as they were being discussed.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s assertion about some recommendations already being implemented, Shadow Home Affairs Minister, PNCR-1G MP Deborah Backer said that her party felt that some of the most important ones had not been but in place. She said that these did not require donor funding but rather the political and professional will.
The PNCR-1G MP pointed out that had this been done, issues such as extrajudicial killings would not remain such a major problem as they were now. Backer pointed to the important role of training of police officers and the important question regarding who was allowed to carry a shot gun. She pointed to the recent killing of Patentia Secondary School student Kelvin Fraser, who was shot by a police officer.
Backer also identified the need to improve remuneration for officers as well as the working conditions in an attempt to attract the best minds.
As she indicated her party’s support for the report, Backer opined that the government was not interested in wholesale reform of the system but rather with modernization, which included cosmetic measures such as acquiring more equipment and improving buildings. She argued that such measures did not address the fundamental issues.
She also expressed concern that the Home Affairs Minister, who is the subject Minister with responsibility for implementing the reforms, attended less that 50 percent of the committee meetings. Rohee, in his presentation, noted that “a song and a dance” was made of his lack of attendance at the committee meetings. “While I may have been delinquent in attending a 100 percent of the meetings, I was not delinquent in attending to the needs of the people,” the minister told the House confidently.
Meanwhile, Backer also pointed to the recommendations to address the issue of ethnic imbalance in the joint services. She said that in keeping with the recommendations, a study should be done by an independent body. Transport Minister Robeson Benn, who was a member of the select committee, pointed out that the issue of ethnic imbalance in the disciplined forces was a matter of concern that needed to be looked at. According to him, it was injurious to both the group that is dominant and to those who are excluded as well.
While AFC Leader Raphael Trotman indicated his party’s support of the report, he expressed concerns at the length of time it took to approve the recommendations made and at the fact that several reports have in the past failed to be properly implemented. “The record… speaks for itself and that is that none of these reports, and none of the recommendations, and very few if any, ever get implemented,” he said.
“We in the Alliance For Change are all in favour of police reform, we are all in favour of reform of the Disciplined Services but we are not convinced and have not evinced an intention on the part of this administration to do much better,” Trotman stated. “We shudder to think that if it took seven years to consider the recommendations, how many centuries will it take to implement them…”. While noting that some recommendations have already been implemented, Trotman adverted to the continued killing of innocent persons by police in particular circumstances and said it indicates that the country is no better off. He said too that it had already been established by the Commission that changes to policing would not have the intended impact if these were not complemented by changes in the wider criminal justice system.
PNCR-1G MP Basil Williams expressed his concern about the recent legislation passed which allowed the minister to pronounce on the granting of firearm licences, as he pointed out that the Commission had rejected this. Williams said that the minister was in fact setting himself up as a “firearm czar” in this regard being the “judge, jury and executioner” in terms of the granting of fire arm licences.
Williams questioned the decision to allow ranks of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to make arrests. He said that the normal procedure is for soldiers to cordon off an area and then allow the police in to make the necessary arrests. Prime Minister Sam Hinds later responded and said that this was necessary since they were occasions when GDF ranks were on a particular scene but were unable to intervene as necessary because they were not empowered to do so.
Meanwhile, Williams questioned why the Parliamentary oversight committee for the Security Sector, had not been constituted as yet, despite the recent passage of a motion to allow this. He stressed that such oversight was necessary especially in the context of some of the bad decisions that were being made by the authorities.
Williams also rejected Rohee’s assertion that the opposition members were “playing to the gallery”. “The people of this country are not dunces… they are on to the antics of the people on the other side,” he stated.
The report had its origins during the troublesome days on the East Coast when President Bharrat Jagdeo and opposition leader PNCR Leader Robert Corbin agreed to establish the Disciplined Forces Commission. The commission was given a mandate to begin work on July 1, 2003 to inquire into the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Prison Service and Guyana Fire Service in order to identify their shortcomings and to recommend remedies to respond to the public safety crisis.
This was done and the commission’s final report was presented to the Speaker of the National Assembly on May 6, 2004. The report was then laid before the National Assembly on May 17 and was accepted unanimously. A select committee was then established in November 4, 2004, with a mandate to report to the National Assembly in four months but this process dragged on for years.
The DFC, which was sworn in on June 30th, 2003, comprised Justice Ian Chang, attorney Anil Nandlall, former GDF Brigadier David Granger , current attorney general Charles Ramson and Irish human rights activist Maggie Bierne. Bierne resigned subsequently and was replaced by Dr Harold Lutchman.
