Amid the continuing carnage on the roads, the barefaced `shakedowns’ and pockets of shocking lawlessness that obtain in the administration of road traffic by members of the Guyana Police Force are the worst kept ‘secrets’ of the country’s wider law enforcement regime.
The reality, however, has become sufficiently commonplace, sufficiently entrenched, that neither the Home Affairs Minister nor the Commis-sioner of Police trouble themselves to the contrary. Perhaps worse, the practice of enforced police ‘shakedowns’ in preference to the substantive application of the laid-down law in instances of traffic transgressions now rank as arguably, the most open, most cynical disfigurement of the law by those who are sworn to uphold it. Open and barefaced as the practice is those in authority have long ceased to consider it to be a matter for robust official sanction. It is as if the traffic shakedown has become too entrenched, too seasoned a practice to be removed.
Nor can there be any question than that most Guyanese with a modicum of ‘smarts’ are acutely aware of the deep-rooted corruption that underpins traffic administration, a circumstance which, in itself, makes the point that we would be altogether deluding ourselves if we were to think that the Force’s ‘top brass’ sit in blissful ignorance of a traffic administration regime that is mired in corruption.
It is why it has been allowed to persist over the years, rather than the fact that it exists, that is the interesting issue. All the while, the lawlessness on the roads of all forms and tragic deaths continue in the main because of poor or non-existent enforcement of traffic rules. Was there a traffic cop in the vicinity of any of the three fatal accidents on Saturday night/Sunday morning?
There is a school of thought which suggests that the anomalies that obtain in the administration of traffic are actually part of the glue that holds the Force itself together. In circumstances where the ranks’ emoluments afforded them little incentive to ‘join up’, in the first place, it is the potential of ‘Traffic’ to offer significant ‘top ups’ which, by their own admission, took many of them there. Truth be told traffic ‘shakedowns,’ are seen by their perpetrators as sufficiently crucial for the benefactors to consider a hasty career change once the facility is removed.
Then there are the traffic ‘campaigns’ unleashed by the Force from time to time that are regarded as occasional windfalls, ‘happy hours’ for those ranks who administer traffic and those above them who size up the campaigns (out of an abundance of self-interest) with gimlet eyes.
Truth be told, traffic ranks openly admit that the ‘campaigns’ instituted by the Commissioner of Police, from time to time serve no greater purpose than to allow those who administer and execute the campaigns to gorge themselves from time to time. Given the deaths over the weekend, another such campaign may be imminent.
‘Rogue’ traffic ranks and minibus operators become strange bedfellows, colluding to fashion ‘deals that allow immunity from sanction for some of the most egregious irregularities.
Neither the Minister of Home Affairs nor the Commissioner of Police can pretend to be ignorant of these shocking irregularities. They appear, as Guyanese are wont to say, to be simply going with the flow.
Writing in the July 28 edition of Stabroek News on the new campaign recently launched by the police, B. A. Ramsay said the following: “The Police will first have to lead by example to determine the success or failure of the “Respect the Road” campaign. Will the Police Force be investigating the many alleged claims that scores of drivers have bought their licenses and really are the ones who, due to their ignorance of road safety and road courtesy, are putting the rest of us in danger? It is largely through the failures of the Traffic Department to deal with the many daily situations that have emboldened our road users with the wrong attitude. Many of the Force’s lawmen are out on the make thus helping the situation to reach alarming levels. Minibus operators appear to have special immunity, and many are alleged to be owned by the ranks of the GPF. The 30 newly recruited ranks are likely to follow a similar pattern as their seniors if not disciplined early.
“This campaign should not be one to harass or drive the fear of the devil into errant drivers but to reach out and educate them through strict ‘on the spot’ warning with the view of suspending their driving privileges should they be found errant again. The drivers who speed and overtake on narrow congested roads without stopping for anything or anyone (The Ignorant) the ones who will pass obstructions in their path and sometimes flash their lights as they come menacingly head-on into the opposite lane (The Uneducated), the ones who overtake and cut traffic off at intersections (The Road Hogs), the ones who will not give way to parked traffic attempting to pull out (The Aggressive), the ones who have upgraded their headlights to blind oncoming traffic (The Bullies), the ones whose vehicles are fitted with flashing lights that should only be on emergency vehicles (The Untouchables), the ones who drive and overtake on the cycle lanes (The Brainless) etc… etc… etc”.
We await the positive results of this campaign but not with high expectations.
