Those thoughts were prompted by two events – or sets of events.
One has to do with a story in another section of the print media which stated that `Strategic security services awarded $1.1 Billion contract to secure state property.’ The other reason has to do with the seemingly daily infractions by our full-fledged policemen with allegations being leveled from top to bottom of the once-noble Force.
I suspect that our society does not pause to heed the importance of Guyana’s Private Security Service Sector. I suspect too, that private security guards outnumber our full-fledged policemen and women. I’m not including here members of the entity described as the “Special Constabulary”. (I see them too at State Agencies, dressed like regular policemen. I wonder at their status and ponder why they are not graduated to become full-fledged members of the under-staffed Guyana Police Force. Perhaps Mr Laurie Lewis could assist me here?).
From Watchmen
to Security Guards
When I was growing up we had “Watchmen”. Yes they were all men. No ladies in those days. Females in the Police or Volunteer Forces were a rare phenomenon in those days. So the older guys, with torchlights, food and tough spirits, literally watched the stores, especially, for the owners at nights. Those “watchies” certainly knew the towns and villages after dark. They were also fortunate that illegal weapons were not then prevalent.
Fast-forward to the late sixties, if my lazy memory serves me accurately, and I recall a retired Police Officer, Mr Nem Sobers, featuring in one of the earliest private security firms, the PPS. Then I discovered the GEB. From more watchmen we now boast security guards whose firms advertise “armed or baton guards, escorts, canine handlers, surveillance systems and other systems related to the profession of security of person and property.
Do you realize how many older Guyanese in their hundreds are “security guards”? So-called or trained? And is it not a toss-up as to whether there are now more female than male guards?
It was just a few weeks ago that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) was given, through legislation, official oversight over all the many Private Security Firms operating in the country. And how they do need scrutiny. The Police Force, however, will certainly have to raise its own standards to require the same of the Security firms.
The relevant legislation, I understand, provides for the GPF oversight authority to demand increased training, legally-binding employment policies and numerous, acceptable conditions of work for the employees. Imagine too, the billions of dollars worth that these humble, needy, not-always-fit-or-trained guards are responsible for. Our taxpayers’ millions are now paying Mr Richard Kanhai’s Strategic Security firm to secure State properties throughout our ten geographic regions.
Consider the role of these firms in the context of our economy. The trained younger men and the untrained, tired old ladies who need jobs are thus employed. At great risk sometimes, they ensure the security and safety of billions of State Property – our property – commercial and industrial entities and projects. Translate all of that into dollars and you get an idea of the economic contribution and significance of today’s private security community.
It is tempting therefore to compare the role of Private Security to the GPF which the government funds. I’ll leave that for another time. Except to remark upon the fact that errant policemen now tend to make security guards seem quite disciplined. I know that that is not so, but that too is now left for another time.
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The AFC in sugar?
A few friends from FITUG – the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana – and one from GAWU, contacted me to discuss what they deemed as an Alliance-For-Change (AFC) agenda into the sugar sector.
More explicitly, GAWU – the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, arguably the largest trade union in the Caribbean, seems to be complaining that the AFC, led by Berbician Moses Nagamootoo, is influencing disgruntled sugar workers to desert GAWU.
Naturally, the FITUG-affiliate resents this alleged political intrusion into trade union/industrial affairs. So they briefed me on the “historic attempts” to discredit GAWU since its hard-fought-for recognition. From Harrylall to Paul Tennassee to Ravi Dev, GAWU alleges that politicians see sugar workers and their families as “thousand of votes”.
I love certain Public Relations challenges and will listen to the FITUG/GAWU versions whilst not wishing to be too “political”. But can that really be avoided in this Big, Beautiful Blighted Land? Stay tuned.
Ponder …
*1) Will not President Ramotar appoint any of the four technocrat ministers? Especially a Minister of Tourism? Or a Minister of Diaspora Relations?
*2) Do you realize that your National Identification card can be more important than you – a real living person? The Finance Ministry makes me feel so.
*3) Go to the Umana Yana this coming Tuesday afternoon. It will be World Story-Telling Day.
Til next week!
(Comments? allanafenty@yahoo.com)
