Dear Editor,
So Minister Clement Rohee says David Granger is treading on dangerous ground when he talks about the crime situation. The Minister has a rather narrow view of crime and criminality. Note how he focused on what efforts the police are making, and his reaction referred specifically to gun-related crimes.
I cannot speak for my presidential candidate, David Granger, but what I know is this: like the PNCR and Mr Granger we are all concerned with the whole question of criminality and immorality which have increased over the last two decades.
When an administration fails to curb criminal and illegal activities it creates the environment for others to follow, and that is what we see in our society. When guns are put in the hands of people like the late Axel Williams, etc, and a blind eye turned to phantom gangs; when contracts are awarded which smack of rascality; when rules are broken daily; when a few are given the lion’s share of the cake, and super benefits go to a few and elsewhere; when a big one can be made immune from the police, you then send a signal to others to get things by doing what is wrong.
So when the little chap sees or knows of the privileged ones making an easy few millions in a single deal, or the same person he knew from the street or village next door suddenly owning Prados and properties in North America and he still has to get by in a squatting area or travel by minibus, he or she asks the question why or how could the society allow such great disparity and injustice.
It is this injustice which I believe David Granger and a new clean government will change.
It will also provide opportunity, such as some form of National Service, so that the boy/girl from the Rupununi, North West, Corentyne, the hinterland, the coastal belt and Georgetown can meet, play, eat and learn together, so that later on in life they will not regard the ‘other person’ as alien or someone to be exploited.
Mr Rohee cannot see the bigger and more important picture.
Gun crimes are obviously unacceptable and must be dealt with, but they are really part of a wider issue which we ignore at our peril. David Granger is on the right road.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP
