Guyana and Trinidad
And Joe Singh’s last day

“After God is de police, is an expression older folks were fond of when I was growing up in Alberttown in the capital.

The saying alluded to the fact that, in those times, when persons were under criminal attack or were actively being victims they would invariably shout “Oh my God! Police!!” So just after God Himself came the cry and appeal to the police.

That broken-English creole-type expression back then pointed,  obliquely, to the status of the local Police Force and the respect it earned and enjoyed. How things have changed!

And to personalize the context within which I wrote, I must admit that, growing up in my own law-abiding need and near-poverty, I was quite  a police-friendly lad. I admired Police Route Marches, Motor Bikes, “Horse-Guards” and so on. The adult males I know as father, uncles, senior cousins were all in some section of the Force – the Fentys, Henrys Alexanders, et al. Even my first ever long pants were of the police serge my father discarded! Yes, I was a complete “police person”. Hence my disappointment these days.

Our police force today

I would hardly be one to  lambaste unequivocally the Guyana Police Force, as others do, painting all cops with one brush of dismissal and negative criticism.

Rather, I hold closely still to the observation and reality which I first heard articulated by the late Lloyd Barker, himself once our Police Commissioner. Responding to the early public criticism of the quality and behaviour of young policemen then, Barker reminded both the public and the authorities that “the recruits, with all their short-comings, limited qualifications and less-than-perfect behaviours, are products of the larger society out there”. He was always at pains to point out that his Training School only had the raw recruits to work with for a few months compared to the longer periods  the youths had spent in their homes, schools, churches and communities.  I took his point.

Today, in the context of our burgeoning corruptocracy, the aspiring policeman and actual recruit apparently succumbs to joining up for the potential “runnings”.  Who are their police role models these days? The brighter ones, as well as the shrewd ones know that their Commissioner has been accused by the USA State Department.

They experience suspicious dealings and behaviours by other seniors and even top government functionaries. Only old-fashioned values and, perhaps, certain religious convictions (?) will compel them to be honest upright cops in a society of national decadence. But what can the civilian society do to encourage desirable, lawful and profession al behaviour amongst our policemen and women? You tell me. It can’t just be penalties whenever the errant ones are caught.

Last week marked 171 years since the Force was established, one year after slavery ended. The politics of control in the Burnham era; the crime wave of 2002 onwards, with both political and racial undertones; the slaughter of policemen and the responses by Police Death Squads and cocaine-friendly goons, were all factors which challenged the police force. Both its credibility; diminishing integrity and its ability to function professionally. Over the past weeks we see, read and hear of numerous alleged and real excesses by our police. They are all we have. But what an anniversary.

Leaders of the force…

Organizations such as crime-prevention, crime-fighting institutions like Police Forces are often epitomized by those who head and lead them. They are styled commissioners in the case of our police force.

My father and uncle-in-law caused me to be able to spend “holidays”, as a youth (8 to 15 years) at station (compounds) such as La Grange, Kitty, Leonora, Cove-and-John and Fort Wellington. Among the Commissioners and senior police officers whose names I learnt early were Matheson, Whittingham, Weber, Puttock and Rose. These were mostly foreigners who commanded enormous respect.

Peter Owen was another foreigner who had to confront the calamities of the sixties. Political Independence and Mr Burnham gave us Carl Austin, Felix Austin, Henry Fraser, Lloyd Barker, Balram Raghubir, Laurie Lewis, Floyd McDonald, Winston Felix, Henry Greene. Did I leave out anyone? I am old enough to comment on the contributions and circumstances of these Servants and Protectors of Society. But space and fear won’t allow me to. Those commissioners still alive can tell us so much about what the political directorates – and now their Private Sector/Shady Surrogates-subjected them to over the years. (In my case, imagine snippets from Henry Alphonso Fraser and Laurie Leyland Lewis…)

In Trinidad, in Guyana…

Isn’t it interesting? How procedures and circumstances differ from country to country; culture to culture? The new government of Trinidad and Tobago has just accepted its Police Service Commis-sion’s recommendation and has appointed a Canadian as that Republic’s new Police Commissioner. (Though a certain senior counsel seems set to challenge the appointment)

Even as I peruse the UK’s DFID Symonds Strategic Report on a Guyana Police Reform Programme (CNTR 00951A) since 2000, with all its wonderful recommendations, I contemplate the thinking that influenced our government to forego a recent United Kingdom Reform Programme for the local police and its reluctance to accommodate the American DEA here or other US Resident Advisers on Security. Like Jamaica and Trinidad, would our government employ the services of Scotland Yard or Canada for the top echelons of the Force? Like they wanted to do with a New York Police Commissioner of dubious character? Oh boy, what I’d give to discover what the Americans know.
Joe’s Last Day

Joe Singh’s final day as the CEO of GT&T had to be stressfully interesting. A government ministry, without the courtesy of a warning, “chainsawed” down hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of promotional signs belonging to his company. The minister concerned reported that he had no idea – no way of knowing (?) to whom the costly signs belonged. Poor  Minister. Poor CEO. (GT&T had secured City Hall’s permission.)

You know what a PNC fellow thinks? That the retired Major-General Singh should really lead the opposition political coalition to try to remove that uniformed minister from government! What do you think?

Ponder…

*1)  Don’t panic over flooding people! Retired Colonel Chabilall Ramsaroop and his Training Officer Kester Craig assure us that a National Flood Preparedness plan  “is closer to becoming a reality”. They worked on it for months, it was reported in March, yes, the Civil Defence Commission  has floods licked.

*2)  Jamaica and Trinidad enforce curfews and lockdowns as part of stringent crime-fighting strategies.

*3)  Oh, the East Bank Demerara Police Stations cannot respond to urgent calls for assistance as bandits plunder. What is to be done?

*3b) The young Prime Minister of Barbados is on leave because of significant illness. Let’s pray for him, he has Guyanese roots!

4*)   Great stuff Lady Jags! Just Good naughty Cubans. Let’s all think about funding to ensure the Lady Jags camp and train together often. Find sources of funding now!

5*)   Happy birthday today! To my beautiful granddaughter, to Bert and Estwick, to the Mighty Sparrow and to Tom Hanks and O.J. Simpson.

‘Til next week!

(Comments?

Allanafenty@yahoo.com)