Dear Editor,
I read with disbelief the article captioned “Police patrol vehicles to have English and Spanish writing” in SN’s September 20 edition. The article in part read “In an effort to provide a more broad-based and efficient professional service to all Guyanese, including foreign nationals, especially those speaking Spanish, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has decided to include `Policia’ on all Police vehicles”.
Editor, I see no problem with the Police vehicles emblazoned with “Policia” so that the Spanish speaking nationals could clearly identify a Police vehicle. What about the Chinese and Indian nationals who constitute a significant part of our population? How could they identify these vehicles? Well, Mr. Commissioner of Police, please add below that of the “Policia” the words “Pulis” for the Indians and “Jînchá for the Chinese, if not it would be discriminatory to these two categories of foreign nationals, and the same goes for any other “foreign national” that cannot speak fluent English.
In keeping with the GPF aim to be a “modern law-enforcement organisation” as part of it 2022-2026 Strategic Plan “to be inclusive and building partnership”, then it behooves that no “foreign national” should be left out of their mother language word for “Police” on these vehicles.
Does neighbouring Brazil’s or Venezuela’s Police vehicles carry the word “Police” to cater for the English-speaking population? No, they don’t.
Having the word “Policia” on our Police vehicles could only be described with one word “absurd”.
Yours sincerely
Ash Sen
