Declaring it a disturbing trend among political leaders, Transparency Institute Guyana Inc (TIGI) yesterday called for a moratorium on the politicising of crime and urged political leaders to band together to fight criminality.
In a statement, TIGI said that the use of crime for political advantage is inconsistent with the responsibilities of politicians to the people and goes against collaboration. The statement said that it is therefore not surprising that over time, the government “has been fixated on making comparisons of crime rates to baselines that are often meaningless and which offer no comfort, while the troubling theory that it is within the interest of the opposition to see crime spiral out of control, is kept alive”.
President David Granger recently told the media “I am suspicious… that there are some persons who are committing crimes to show that the police force and government are weak. We don’t know for sure what is taking place but many of these crimes have their origin in the weakening of the police force in the early days and so we have a very serious problem on our hands,” he said.
TIGI said that “This expressed view from the leader of all Guyanese is disappointing. Crime is crime regardless of who is involved and everyone involved should be handled as criminals. In addition, it is not only important to address crime when certain individuals are directly victimised. The President’s utterances fail to assuage public fear, but may do greater damage by inciting partisan discord among citizens even as they continue to be affected by the violent crimes. We hope that this is not a precursor to disproportionate or burdensome measures to create an aura of addressing crime.”
TIGI charged that the opposition is also culpable given the rhetoric it continues to peddle. TIGI said that crime over the last twenty years has included and continues to include violent crimes, white collar crimes such as corruption and organised illicit activities at high levels of society including trade in narcotics and crimes across borders.
“These have and continue to rape the country of its resources that could advance the well-being of the people. Such crimes continue to erode the social order and to undermine human security. In this regard, the view of the leader of the opposition (Bharrat Jagdeo) that the crime situation `has never been this bad’ lacks sincerity, TIGI said.
It added, “We have all been moved by the savage and gruesome acts committed in the last twenty years. The citizens are terrified by the apparent resurgence of robberies of businesses and home invasions given the attendant propensity for brutality and murder. While society recoils, it is unconscionable that our political leaders are comfortable playing politics. The state of crime should instead unite us across political and social divides and this appears necessary given that it is a longstanding problem largely left up to the government of the day. This politicising of crime is divisive and feeds on the wrong class of emotions within the population. No level of crime is tolerable and crime is too consequential for such blasé treatment”.
TIGI called for a moratorium on politicising crime and said that political leaders should henceforth band together on this problem in order to consolidate all available resources in the fight.
The transparency body also took aim at crime statistics which have been presented to the public.
“We have read views on crime being both on the increase and the decline. All in all, we have witnessed confusion about statistics and cringed at the realisation that the story sometimes matters more than the problem. Furthermore, a general thread through these articles, perhaps with few exceptions, is fuelling of the political cleavage.
“Regardless of sophistication of techniques, statistics are essentially garbage in-garbage out. We are unsure about the relative state of the violent crimes discussed in the media since we find key deficiencies in the calculations done and an overall lack of methodological articulation or justification. To put crime into perspective, we need to view trends over long periods. Show trends over, say the last ten or twenty years, disaggregating the data in various ways to provide more meaningful overviews. TIGI would be more than happy to lend a hand if necessary. However, we consider it better for the data to be released to the public with appropriate measures to preserve anonymity so that the considerable capabilities of the citizenry can address the issue. This will bring the needed transparency to the murky and untrustworthy crime statistics”, TIGI said.
TIGI also expressed consternation at the ongoing feud between the Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud and his deputy David Ramnarine over promotions.
“At this time when there should be a war on crime, it is offensive that the top echelons of the police force are bickering rather than spending every moment advancing citizen security. This should not be tolerated. This development is dereliction of duty insofar as it reroutes attention and especially disrupts the functioning of the force. Furthermore it is likely to undermine public confidence in the police leaving them force as an attractive option to obtain results. TIGI calls on the leaders to end this situation swiftly”, the statement said without naming the two.
