PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee has blasted the government for not taking ownership of the recent crime wave and its silence on the five-point security strategy devised in July.
At the party’s weekly press briefing held at Freedom House yesterday, Rohee said, “We have heard nothing further of the much touted anti-crime plan that was submitted months ago by the Commissioner of Police to the Public Security Minister who in turn claimed he submitted same to Cabinet.”
He stated that adding to the confusion former chief of staff of the GDF, Edward Collins “appears to be off on a frolic of his own formulating a parallel plan” commissioned by the Ministry of the Presidency.
In July, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said government had given a commitment to the police force that it will put all of the assets of the state at its disposal to ensure that wherever criminal activity exists it will be rooted out “most viciously.”
The five-point strategy was to deal directly with police administration and to increase organisation and training. One part was to deal with illegal firearms, which birthed the gun amnesty. Additionally, police equipment and assets were promised while improvements in police communication using the internet and access to the CCTV cameras were also promised. In late August Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan promised that over 100 new CCTV cameras would be installed.
Rohee called out President David Granger stating that his “refusal to accept” that there has been an increase in crime was “disingenuous.”
He read a list of news headlines that cited graphic criminal activities while paralleling those with recent remarks by Granger denying an increase in violent crimes.
The President recently said publically that many criminal elements originally started form 2002 following the jail break. To that Rohee said “Mr Granger’s explanation… must be exposed as an attempt to evade the issue.”
He stated that along with public perception, the crime wave can be substantiated by statistics from the Guyana Police Force. In addition, the US State Department has issued an advisory which said, “Criminal activity continues to be a major threat, particularly violent aggravated robberies.”
According to Rohee, “No amount of semantics nor excuses from any quarter can contradict the fact that there has been and still is an increase, if not heightened criminal activities in Guyana.”
He called out the government for its heavy reliance on the British-sponsored Security Sector Reform Action Plan. Rohee claimed that while the government is heavily vested in the British-sponsored security initiative, its own high publicised five-part plan has been left to fall by the wayside.
The former home minister said, “Gun-related crime from the time they came into office compared to corresponding period from last year, obviously the police statistics show there has been an increase as well… I would not argue that the situation has improved in fact Mr Granger himself has admitted several places that the crime situation has not improved and he is banking on the British-sponsored Security Reform Action Plan to help rescue the situation. He is also quoted as saying that you know there has been an improvement in the way the police operate, investigation etcetera, etcetera …”
He said government had years in opposition to study the correlation between education and criminal activity and yet the government now was still pushing the same line that it had to be studied.
“All the years in the opposition they had the time to look at that. They still looking at it. Then he also claimed that the causes of crime can only change if certain things in a society change. Well he is in the driving seat now to improve the academic level of the young people and bring about these certain changes that he said,” Rohee stated.
The General Secretary did acknowledge that the current administration has kept a number of programmes initiated under the PPP to foster youths and keep them away from criminal life. He did state however, “Now that Mr Granger and his cohort are in the driving seat and have the opportunity to apply all their grandiose ideas, and clever sounding solutions they have been proven incompetent and helpless in providing the good life to all Guyanese.”
