Dear Editor,
I was appalled to see the headlines of SN on October 25, 2016 which stated that the Hon. Minister Ramjattan was lobbying for more plastic and less cash transactions to stem crime. Editor, I dare say that this is one very revealing confession by our goodly Public Security Minister. He is basically throwing his hands up in the air and telling the citizens of our country not to carry so much cash because there is nothing that can be done about the criminal elements that hound their lives on a daily basis. This is like saying to your children to stop taking lunch to school because bullies usually take away their food.
I wonder if the minister ever stepped out of the comfort of his offices and observed the Guyanese people carrying on their daily lives. If the majority of the population is filled with persons in Armani suits and designer outfits operating in a celebrity city, then Editor I am the first to put my foot in my mouth. But whether we choose to admit it or not, the majority of the population in Guyana are people who hustle and work hard to carry on their daily lives, and the vast majority deal with cash. Did our goodly minister already coordinate his plan and lobby our minister of finance to slow down or cease the printing of bank notes? Yes, I am sounding ridiculous because it’s not right that our good VP alone sound ridiculous here. And these are just my reactions before I even read the article.
Sure the police have declared that “serious” crime is down. Whatever the world that means, there are still the lesser beings who on a daily basis face the fear and challenges of being robbed in high daylight, face the risk of being terrorized in their homes by bandits, of having their purses snatched, of being held up in a store, and the list goes on. Are these unfamiliar stories?
We are now telling the labourers, the carpenters, the seamstresses, minibus operators, market vendors (I can go on like this for a long time)…to deal with plastic!!? And it can bring crime down by 35% in this country?! Come on Mr. Minister, you’ve got to do better than that! That’s worse than telling drivers to pull over and stop when the other drivers ignorantly turn on their LED’s at nights. Some of us lesser beings know how to read, and we are noting a very disturbing trend.
The minister needs to come to grips with the economic activities in our country that provide a living for our people, and review his great thoughts. It is a convincing argument that less cash and more plastics can do lots towards improving the way of doing business and increase accountability, but when one resorts to that as a medium of curbing crime, it gets worrying.
Editor I have now read the article. The good Minister has not made any mention of addressing the criminal elements. He is encouraging the victims to take evasive action by using plastics and quoting some statistics in bringing across his conviction. The Minister went on to accuse the opposition leader of giving confidence to criminals in an adjacent article in the same publication of SN. In that self-indicting article there are a number of issues that the minister himself ought to address being part of the government. Tell us, other than the words “the green economy”, what is being done to address those issues including providing employment opportunities for our youths and strengthening the police force. You were voted in there to deal with those issues, and take the country forward. The opposition are supposed to be garrulous as the minister would know from experience. The opposition leader’s utterances do represent the man in the street view, and they make up the majority of the populace.
In concluding, I am convinced that the minister’s confession of his inability and incompetence to address the criminal elements certainly lifted about 35% of the weight off his chest, coincident with the anticipated drop in crime level that he so convincingly touts if we were to go plastic. Might I suggest that an actual practical plan to deal with the criminals themselves might go a long way to discharging his duties and perhaps give him added relief.
Yours faithfully,
Khemraj Goberdhan