“There is no, I insist, no breakdown of law and order in Guyana!” That’s the gospel according to the Honourable Clement Rohee, the Home Affairs Minister of the Republic. You have to wonder whether the Minister dwells in the same space as the rest of us or whether it simply isn’t a matter of protecting his portfolio.
We can, the Minister says, “walk about this country, we can work, we can have fun, we can have leisure, we can do all we want in this country without looking over our shoulders as we used to do prior to 1992.”
In case the Minister didn’t know there are people who work and play and have fun in some of the most dangerous places in the world. That is not to say that law and order may not have broken down but you do not allow that state of affairs to ruin your entire life. And, Mr. Rohee, Afghanistan, Somalia and Haiti are not the most appropriate examples with which to compare Guyana. The former two have known little else but civil conflict or outright war for years and the latter………..well, you make the judgment, Mr. Rohee.
When we speak of a breakdown of law and order in Guyana, Mr. Rohee we mean, for example, that violent criminals operate with impunity, that there appears to be no fear of legal consequence, that the police do not represent the deterrent which they ought to and that guns have become ridiculously easy to acquire. We mean too, Mr. Minister, that many citizens no longer look to the police for protection but rather, employ their own protective mechanisms, giving rise to the danger of a wild west scenario. Some communities, some families, Mr. Minister, live in permanent fear of bandits and all too frequently that fear and apprehension is manifested in a frenzied vigilante-like mentality.
These days, Mr. Minister, people are not just looking over their shoulders, they have their backs to the walls in order to ensure that there is nothing behind them.
