Tackling the country’s crime situation is high on the agenda for two of the five presidential candidates of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) with retired Brigadier David Granger promising to put a big drug lord in prison.
At a meeting held at the Skeldon High School Annex at Corriverton on Sunday, Granger told the gathering that the first thing he would do is to reform the GPF because it is currently under-equipped and its members underpaid.
Among his other priorities are the stamping out of piracy and the patrolling of the Brazilian border to prevent gunrunning and smuggling of narcotics. He said the Guyana Defence Force must be allowed to do its job of protecting the borders and should not be used “as a big riot squad….”
Granger, also a historian, stated confidently that “for the first time I am going to put a big drug lord into jail, you watch it.”
He noted that a big problem on the Corentyne is public security. He pointed out that “some people regard contraband as a sort of cottage industry but that it is strangling the legitimate economy. The small producers are overwhelmed by illegitimate imports from across the border.”
According to him, the longer we permit “backtracking” and “smuggling we would always end up with problems of piracy and underproduction.”
Attorney and PNCR Vice-Chairman Basil Williams, who also noted that the Corentyne is associated with cross-border trade in Suriname, told the gathering that “we have to take into consideration the question of border security.” He pointed out though that “this is such a long strip for you to protect that we need collection effort and some kind of border engagement here with Suriname and Guyana….”
Further he said, “We are cooperating with the ferry service and we could cooperate in other areas” like “policing the Corentyne River.”
Williams also said that he has no difficulty with the joint development with Suriname, especially for oil exploration.
Carl Greenidge, a former Caricom economist who is also contesting, has recognized too that there is a degree of lawlessness that pervades the economy as a whole. The other presidential hopefuls who envisaged great changes for a brighter future were Dr. Faith Harding and attorney James Bond.
