Dear Editor,
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee may appear to have dodged the proverbial bullet when he appeared before the Commission of Inquiry into the July 18 Linden shootings, (‘Rohee denies blame for Linden deaths,‘ SN, November 1), and denied giving explicit or implicit instructions for the police riot squad sent to Linden to fire live ammunition at protestors.
For even if the Minister has a penchant for bypassing the Police Commissioner and speaking directly with the Commissioner’s subordinates on police operational matters, or if phone records had shown the Minister spoke directly with Commander Hickens or ASPs Todd and Stanton or any police operative or agent of the state in Linden prior to the shootings, I don’t know that that would have been enough to prove a shoot order was given.
The Minister’s appearance, therefore, has to be seen in proper context: he has cabinet level policy oversight for the Guyana Police Force, which, like the regime, has been plagued by pervasive corruption charges and also an embattled image in the public’s eye of being a rogue force that is sometimes used as a political tool or weapon.
Do we know who ordered the police to shoot APNU protestors last December or more recently Shaquille Grant (two of the accused officers have since fled the jurisdiction) or Dameon Belgrave, who was an innocent bystander? In my opinion, the police force was pretty much nurtured in a political culture for the last dozen years to do exactly what it allegedly did on July 18, so no PPP government official necessarily had to give any orders for the police to shoot in Linden.
Meanwhile, as the Commission of Inquiry ascertains whether police officers or agents of the state pulled triggers, or what role, if any, Mr Rohee and all the senior police officers played in the tragedy. I have long posited that, based on close examination of the short chain of events that resulted in the unnecessary shootings – Police Commissioner Leroy Brummel said ‘unjustified’ shootings – the person who should accept ultimate responsibility for the tragedy could well be President Donald Ramotar because of the decision to raise the electricity rates.
Let me remind readers that then presidential candidate Ramotar, while on the campaign trail last October, promised Lindeners that a reduction in government subsidization of electricity rates would kick in with the advent of the Amaila Fall hydroelectric project. With the hydro project many years away, the President, acting on bad advice from holdovers from the vindictive Jagdeo regime, approved the government’s decision to prematurely raise the electricity tariffs in Linden from July 1, 2012. Linden was targeted because it voted overwhelmingly for APNU in the November elections.
The downward spiral from that politically vindictive move by the government came after Lindeners decided to protest the action of the PPP regime and the regime responded with its police force. The rest, including outright lies and confused roles, is now part of recent history or what is now engaging the attention of the Commission of Inquiry.
But I repeat: regardless of what role, if any, Minister Rohee played, and regardless of who ordered the shootings or who actually fired into the crowd of protestors, President Ramotar has to take responsibility for his regime’s politically vindictive decision to get at APNU by going after Lindeners.
The Commission of Inquiry, unfortunately, is tasked only with the actual shootings and will not focus on the root of the problem I have identified, but Guyanese and other observers need to know the context of the political agenda of the PPP, its government and police force, and why Minister Rohee is just a political appointee with full loyalty to the party and government and with little or no regard for cabinet level policy oversight of a truly professional law enforcement agency.
After all, he replaced current presidential advisor on governance, Ms Gail Teixeira, as Home Affairs Minister after Ms Teixeira ruffled the political feathers of her bosses by publicly urging Guyanese to boycott businesses run by drug smugglers.
Ever since then, many observers concluded that the PPP regime, while appearing concerned about crime and criminals, also appeared to turn a blind eye to the illicit drug trade in Guyana. In fact, the regime gave the impression that the illicit drug smuggling problem is an American problem, while the police officers either appeared to be paid to look the other way or to carry out occasional drug busts to give the impression they are doing their job. And not one official has been convicted of corruption!
Minister Rohee’s appointment, therefore, is part of the PPP’s musical chairs game, because even if he goes, his replacement will also put the PPP’s interests ahead of police professionalism. His primary job is to protect the status quo of both the corrupt political class and compromised police force, and it explains why there is pervasive corruption despite a changing of the guard at the highest governmental level, and why the force continues to produce rogue elements.
Editor, I have read enough testimonies presented to the Commission of Inquiry hearings to form my iron-clad conclusion, and while I have no idea what the commissioners will report and recommend, I can hope government will make substantive changes in the way it governs and how the police force operates.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
