Dear Editor,
With the anticipated criticism of Minister Rohee for the failed security situation in the country, I thought he would respond and invoke the PNC as the reason for his failure. I was wrong, as he included the WPA. Twenty-five per cent of the population has only experienced the PPP in government and fifty percent know nothing of the WPA. Dr Jagan is dead. He died in 1997, and the truth is that we need to move on from the Jagan style of rhetoric.
The PPP needs firstly to stop being comfortable with a weak, unprofessional, demoralized security apparatus, which without real resources, upgraded training and much greater professional empowerment cannot effectively tackle the crime situation. It will get worse. (The automatic weapons-armed beat police in woollen pullovers will not stop or solve violent crime.) Second, no public service organization will perform better unless they have better remuneration and conditions of service. (This is true for all government services. Better remuneration and conditions of service can only also grow the economy in ways more assured than some of the hair-brained spending being pursued.) The low remuneration policy is a vestige of Jagan’s distrust of public servants. We have to move on, Mr Rohee.
Yours faithfully,
Ralph Benjamin