Dear Editor,
I refer to the letter of Paul Slowe, CCH, DSM, Asst. Com. of Police (Ret’d), “Reconsider decision to rename Felix Austin Police College” SN 7/20/22. Mr Slowe enumerated some of the sterling contributions of our first Guyanese Commissioner of Police (CoP) Felix Austin and derided the decision for the name to be changed to “Guyana Police Academy”. He ended with an exhortation of the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”. In that spirit I add this bit of knowledge to our past history as it concerns Mr Felix Austin.
As Mr Slowe indicated, Mr Felix Austin was appointed to that post on Jan 1, 1967 and was succeeded by Mr Carl “Bolo” Austin, but did not point out that this was just a year later on Jan 10, 1968. And therein lies my homily which is based on a sitting of the National Assembly of Tuesday, 19th September, 1967 in which a Bill intituled: “An Act to prescribe the age for the vacation of office by the holders of certain offices as authorised by the Constitution of Guyana” was introduced by Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.
Up to that point, on the age of retirement of the CoP, Article 107 (3) of the Constitution provided that: “Subject to the provisions of the next following paragraph, the Commissioner of Police shall vacate his office when he attains such age as may be prescribed by Parliament.” What Burnham was proposing was the age of retirement be now fixed at 55 years with a possibility of being extended to 60 years. While this was presented as being an innocuous change, in reality it was a devious ploy to fire CoP Felix Austin and replace him with a more pliable Carl “Bobo” Austin, who would serve until 1973.
It appears that on his appointment, the 54 year-old Mr Felix Austin was given a list of policemen who he was supposed to promote but the veteran officer balked. He was then sent at that age on a training course in the US but he maintained his position and the Bill was introduced. During his absence, the Acting CoP Carl “Bobo” Austin made a slew of “on the spot” promotions across the country. In the debate, Burnham denied, of course, that the reason for the Bill was to get rid of Felix Austin and replace him with Carl “Bobo” Austin. But no one was surprised when three months later, the deed was done. The callousness of Burnham on his Machiavellian move was exemplified by the response to MP Boysie Ramkarran, who worried how Felix Austin would earn a living after his long service to the state. Mr Burnham replied, “Selling panties like Lambert.”
A month ago, I wrote a letter, “Burnham’s firing of Major Sattaur triggered the de-professionalisation of our Disciplined Forces” (SN 6-19-22). Maj Sattaur had been fired in March 1966, and with the axing of CoP Felix Austin in Jan 1968, the deprofessionalisation continued to metastasize into the cancer it is today.
I close with another quote of Marcus Garvey, “The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.”
Sincerely,
Ravi Dev
