Dear Editor,
I want to make it pellucidly clear: I am not opposed to a national cadet corps programme. I am opposed to a national cadet corps at this time in Guyana’s history and under this initial phase of Granger’s presidency, which to date has signalled a troubling inclination to authoritarianism. We cannot embark on this step, even if it is claimed to be voluntary, because it will end up being conscription by another means. I will support a national cadet corps if I see tangible steps to democratise this country in the near future. Until then, this is a recipe for executive domination and militarization of the nation.
In a mere fifteen days since this government was sworn in, we have seen destructive breaches of the Cummingsburg Accord with respect to the Cabinet 60/40 split; the never-before creation of a ministry of the presidency with its own ministers; deliberate confusion regarding the mobilization of critical constitutional change; and the absorption of the domestic realm of natural resources under the presidency in breach of the Cummingsburg Accord. The Ministry of Citizenship directly under the presidency in light of Article 46 of the constitution allowing the President to strip born Guyanese of their citizenship is troubling for freedom and democracy.
Then there is the Hamilton Green award fiasco, which is clearly a calculated act to demonstrate power and project domination even as an overwhelming majority of the country including a significant percentage of APNU supporters would reject Mr Green getting such an award or getting this award this early in Granger’s presidency. Nothing mocks the Cummingsburg Accord like the Prime Minister operating out of the office of the Ministry of the Presidency, not to mention the security blunder involved. These acts have the bearing of premeditated authoritarianism and signal the start of a precarious course in this country.
The PPP had already firmly put this country on a despotic path. David Granger is continuing this journey and going even further with these antics. To throw a national cadet corps into this unhealthy mix of burgeoning authoritarianism is fatal enough to any hopes of a democratic future. Add an unreformed, barely professional, politically subservient and ethnically imbalanced military and policing machinery from which the crime syndicates and drug cartels operating in Guyana have recruited heavily and the peril of this exercise becomes apparent. Instead of focusing on creating youth employment, the government is focused on trapping the young population of this country, under the guise of a cadet corps programme, into a military system that is acknowledged as failed. Even if this programme is not compulsory, what prevents the government from dictatorially making it mandatory at its whim? In the light of the government’s despotic adventures in the past fifteen days, there is no reason to trust that this programme will not be arbitrarily decreed on the populace.
Even if this is voluntary, the mere fact that this cadet corps programme will likely be ordained on the nation’s school system will mean that many will be pressured to join by its sheer presence in their schools, and the fact it is recruiting directly at the source of the most young people in the country. Then there is the effect of peer pressure on the youths from their friends who have joined. With a shocking 40% of the youth population unemployed, will this adventure be used to plough taxpayers’ money towards inflating military spending to create jobs within the military to entice young people to join so that they serve a government marching firmly into the arms of despotism? There is no easier way to create military dictatorship. Given the high incidence at which former police and army personnel are involved in crime in Guyana, could the very idea of offering military training to a youth populace wracked by disgraceful levels of youth unemployment lead to a higher rate of youth crime and higher crime rates overall now that the youths are getting military training to go with their unemployment doom?
There is nothing wrong with national service and nationalism. There is everything wrong when nationalism is used as a crux to buttress dictatorship or when the leadership somehow feels that it can pillory democracy and yet expect nationalist fervour to reach feverish pitch after stomping on the very idea of democratic dignity. In the absence of a clear democratic direction and deep military reform under the Granger presidency, this is nothing but an effort to create and control a quasi-military machine of youths as well as brainwash the very group that is expected to herald change in this country’s polity. This has the marks of a crude attempt to command the most vulnerable population of this country.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
