President Irfaan Ali on Thursday restated that a unit to focus on defence diplomacy is being set up within the Office of the President and will soon be launched.
Ali while delivering the feature address at the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) Annual Officers’ Conference stated that in the coming days, the unit will be launched in the Office of the President dealing directly with defence diplomacy “because of the role that we will be playing regionally and globally.”
He explained that the government will be moving to defence diplomacy – strategic positioning as against strategic planning – which will be dealing with a lot of analytical capacity in advising policymakers on strategic partnerships and assessing local, regional, and international environments, stressing that Guyana must be able to support its international partners as they support the country.
However, according to Ali, one of the weaknesses of the national system is how persons who retire after 55 years are used given the amount of training and investment made in them individually.
He said that those officers would have acquired all of their experience and attained different levels of educational qualifications but the country then loses them, as such a model will be developed to ensure that they are used in other aspects of national development.
“At the policy level, you must know when you leave us officers your time does not come to an end…” as he told those gathered that based on their performance, professionalism, and delivery they would be given an opportunity after they would have retired.
“So if you believe that you want to play a role in the future after the retirement of your uniform and not you, then you must continuously exhibit what I just spoke of. To do that you yourself have to remain relevant and we are going to be building a system that rewards this”, he said.
Meanwhile, Ali also ordered those gathered to come out with a comprehensive plan to tackle the recklessness on the roadways. This, Ali said, is one of his greatest distresses, calling what is transpiring on the roadways pure recklessness and stupidity from those who risk their lives and put others at risk.
“This must stop”, he declared, adding that “this must get special attention at this officer’s conference…”
He pointed out that legislation was passed to make bar owners and attendees accountable, however, he said that it must be implemented scrupulously. “At the end of this officer’s conference, we must launch a massive education campaign, community by community, road by road.”
He continued, “A modern society is not only built on modern infrastructure, it is built where people think better, act better, and behave better. So I would like to see this officer’s conference in line with what we are doing, come out with a clear comprehensive strategy to deal with it and to deal with it with urgently.”
Ali also said that it is impossible to have effective policing without the support of the community as he commended the GPF for integrating communities within their strategies.
He said that over the last year, the GPF has improved drastically in its targeting of social issues.
