Dear Editor,
Permit me to offer a few comments in response to the editorial titled ‘Mr Rohee and public scrutiny‘ (SN, July 17). Though it is a struggle, I shall try to be kind.
The Minister keeps insisting that the Guyana Police Force is inhabited by a few bad examples only, and that it is not perfect. The latter is a restatement of the obvious and representative of nothing. As for there being only a few bad ones, I have disagreed before, and I disagree again. Here is why.
In the approximately two years since I returned to Guyana, I have been stopped twice by police officers and asked very politely to “Lef sumting nah big maan, de sun hat…” I did on both occasions. There was no pressure, no intimidation. Rightly or wrongly, I did not see this as solicitation or shakedown. In fact, I found both instances to be somewhat humorous. What was not so humorous, were the other occasions when I was a passenger in taxis, and a repeated eyewitness to brazen, naked pressure tactics and open squeeze plays to settle traffic violations from members of the GPF; I was privy to three separate such movements. While my own “lef sumting…” episodes were unprofessional, I hesitate to label them as corrupt. I stand to be corrected, for I believe that many brethren and citizens feel otherwise. On the other hand, the incidents involving the taxi drivers were about egregious misconduct and corruption. On this, I stand immovable.
In sum, three individuals, five occasions, and five different sets – repeat, sets – of coppers, with money changing hands willingly or unwillingly (and I am not counting another incident shared before when police officers tried to shakedown someone driving my vehicle). What does all of this say? It is that I might have a propensity to be in the right place with the wrong people. I doubt it, for then I would have to doubt the myriad stories shared by others of similar such incidents. I could be guilty of lying or exaggerating; then so would be most, if not all, of us who exchange these war stories. So would former Assistant Commissioner Merai, abused spouses, traumatized family survivors, and victimized miners, among others. It would be the same deception by citizens seeking justice and complaining about injustice, and who go public with concerns about influence peddling, money changing hands, deliberate police incompetence and immobility, and an endless litany of villainies. When taken together – and only what has surfaced publicly in the past several months – I submit that this is more than a few bad examples. Way, way more….
On this posture about wicked people seeking to demoralize the force, I wonder… What can be more demoralizing to the force, and more damaging to its self image than the determined efforts to protect and to cover up serious wrongdoing? What can be more enfeebling to the ethical officers (should there be any), and the green newcomers in the lower ranks than the patently puerile postures that seek to deny first, then attack messengers? As always, the question is: What is there to hide? And by the way, does anyone care about the demoralizing impact on larger society when chronic lawless and official obscenities are condoned and the order of the day? Perhaps, like so many things principled and honourable, it just doesn’t matter to either Minister or government.
As I continue to scrutinize the shenanigans in the force, the following can be safely said: If thieves don’t fall out, if some don’t blow the whistle, and if others don’t sell (as alleged) the dirty details, then there is nothing wrong with the Guyana Police Force. In fact, there is not even the minister’s environmental and institutional absurdity of a few bad boys and girls. This would be the perfect police force, as the public would live in the hazy bliss of politically manufactured ignorance and orchestrated silence. Nothing would be amiss, all would be well.
That is why amidst the bulky protestations, compliments of ghostwriters, I hear the dissonance of drum and drummer. Which is emptier should not be too arduous an undertaking.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
