Dear Editor,
The Guyana Police Force has its share of advocates -it is right. My stand is that praise and support must be earned; given where it is due.
Undoubtedly, some recent criticisms and attacks possess racial and political components. Because in this society, strident disagreement automatically degrades to race and politics over something as, believe it or not, a scale on an unknown and unowned Eider duck. The presence or absence of a single scale on a remote Arctic duck is enough to send citizens into bitter racial and political frenzies; the two are inseparable. It should not escape attention that Eiders have no scales nor are there any in Guyana. If so, and not exaggeratedly so, then why and how should not anything and everything else fall into those idiotic and destructive categories? Why not the GPF, too?
I would like to speak for myself and most unambiguously (and hopefully helpfully) as to where I stand and see the GPF. It is absolutely vital that it is of the purest form and character. I would be the first to bow. Yet, pragmatism, culture, and reality bring hard involuntary enlightenment that it cannot be of the cleanest and purest. Circumstances and the weight of time, political legacies, and calculating individual visions. Yet even against these formidable and forbidding backdrops, there has to be hope. Hope and some degree of ready faith to believe in the promise of the GPF. Belief in the face of the fear that follows and leaves fallow the optimisms that yearns for fulfillment; that some degree of actualization will occur in the GPF.
I offer a few examples of my experiences as a repatriate; there are positives and negatives. They are part of the public record, and I have been forced to swallow hard and humble myself for being wrong, even foolish.
A cop was killed while on duty in Berbice. As is customary, I was in the media forefront to hail this fallen hero of a police officer, only to be corrected as to ways that pointed to a lack of the heroic, or any professional ethic. I learned. Then, I encountered an officer one Ash Wednesday morning before 06:00hrs while on the way to worship. I was in the wrong; he set me right. And without a single overture towards a little something. I wrote of him, too. It is because I am very comforted to share, when I sense, experience, or believe that this vital force is operating for the good of citizens. In the first example, I knew not; but took the plunge, so much was my delight upon hearing of a good cop. I was off the reservation. In the second instance, I was right there, and shared the good tale of what transpired. That is my duty to the GPF.
Just recently, I learned of a new police officer, who cannot walk straight; he is so weighed down with the gold chains around his neck. The kicker to that report is that when busts are made, and seizures involved, seniors call and instruct how much is to be declared and how much retained. Too many Guyanese are aware of circumstances similar, but encompassing fitness and associated car ownership; and officers on the job setting up business covers to conceal wealth, among other such exercises. There is a duty to share both the good and bad since the implications are so acute in result, so national in scope.
It was also my duty to share my belief that Commissioner Leslie James means well, promises well, and should do well. I do not see an Afro-Guyanese CoP; or a David Granger appointment. I believe I see and sense a Guyanese professional of the first order, who just could make good and deliver. It is my hope that other Guyanese would share their beliefs and experiences in good conscience, with regard to the present, and an eye to the future.
I seem to recall other personal articulations in the press of courtesies extended and a revealing environmental incident on one Mash Day in the early days of my return. It was where I was serenely informed that the “sun hot, big man.” I reached and extended without any pressure. I got an earful from many for that; for me, it was a deed well done then. And this may cause a firestorm, given today’s harder lines: I think that something in me would reach and share, once I do not feel that I am compelled, that there is no condition.
Editor, what is the point of all of this? It is that I want to see and hear and report that the Guyana Police Force is doing well; that its members (as many as can be had) are caring for and protecting all Guyanese through commitment to professionalism and pride. I am pained to call it out for wrongdoing-perceived or real-as I gain no psychic value (or any value whatsoever) from engaging or joining in police bashing. That would be the height of stupidity and appalling ignorance; and there is more than enough of that per capita. The Guyanese cup overflows with such retardations.
This is my understanding, my unmoving position: as the Guyana Police force goes, so goes Guyana. I wish all of its honorable members well. In so doing, I am wishing myself and fellow citizens the same.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
