Gajraj says crime down, Backer attacks human rights record
By William Walker
Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj yesterday asserted that crime was down while his PNC shadow Deborah Backer lashed out at the government's record on human rights during the budget debate. Backer cited statistics that show almost two persons per month were being killed by the police in the last two years. "There is no need for more statistics," Backer said, "the statistics are in the minds of the mothers, the brothers and sisters who have witnessed police brutality and the widows of those killed". During this tirade, the PPP benches were rather subdued, with Ministers flitting through their documents. Only the occasional comment about the PNC's lack of sympathy for dead policeman Allan Higgins surfaced. Higgins was killed in a shoot out with a notorious wanted criminal. Minister of Home Affairs Ronald Gajraj sat stony jawed during the speech writing a note here and there. When it was his turn, after the tea break, he preferred to talk about statistics on how many fires (835 and 106 bomb scares) there were last year and how many birth certificates the General Register Office handed out (55,780). He did say though that errant members of the force must know "there is no escape from due process of law." Gajraj announced there was a reduction in crime "except for a little rise in manslaughter". He attributed the decline to police intelligence work and better communications and he criticised the (electronic) media's coverage of the America street robbery amongst others, as giving the perception of a lawless society. Backer preferred to liken the police force to the West Indies Cricket team before Brian Lara's resignation and called on the Commissioner of Police to follow Lara's example. She said she knows police ranks who are willing to come forward with allegations of police brutality but that the "climate in the country is not right". She noted the decline in complaints to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) as nothing but a sign that the people have no faith in that body and urged the formation of a new authority with new powers. Gajraj recalled it was the PNC themselves back in 1989 that had constructed the cumbersome PCA. "Well change it then!" they heckled. Gajraj made no such commitment but observed that the PCA was only authorised to receive complaints and investigations were up to the Office of Professional Responsibility. Gajraj had last year suggested the merging of these two departments - something Backer was firmly against. Backer described the conditions in the East La Penitence lockups where one woman spent nine days in a room with 20 other females eating one meal a day of chicken skin pepperpot and sleeping on newspapers. The woman, Backer said, has yet to be charged. Backer spared the honourable members any mention of the sanitary conditions despite the insistence of some PNC backbenchers. But she did say that "should one cause to brake in traffic infront of the Alberttown Police Station one can smell the lockups." The females are going to be moved to a separate wing in the Brickdam lockups within the next few months, Gajraj revealed and said improvements have been made to the Kitty and Brickdam lock ups too, before accusing Backer of having a fetish for driving by prisons. As for the Camp Street jail Backer said it holds 992 prisoners when designed for 350. She observed the many fiddlers on the roof who hold press conferences "I suppose that's democracy Mr Speaker!" Yes, there are overcrowded conditions, Gajraj conceded. In fact his figure for inmates at the Camp Street prison was over 1,000 but Gajraj could not resist blaming it on the PNC administration "this thing did not happen yesterday". He said the government is indeed looking into the idea of a new prison . Meanwhile Gajraj proudly announced that the prisons had produced $40M worth of vegetables last year and that the Georgetown Prison's Steel Band had won first in a recent competition. The government benches then did their best impersonation of a steel band. Backer started her contribution by recalling Gajraj's speech of last year and what she called his many promises. She ran down the list basically giving an F for all his unfulfilled plans. Gajraj jumped on the important fact that the Suddie police headquarters in Essequibo had removed to Anna Regina but after running down the same list himself it was more "under active consideration", "in the near future" and other ....promises. "Where is the phantom fire tender supposedly lent to the Linden fire station?" Backer asked. The fire tender is alive and well and stationed in Linden according to Gajraj who said he had just spoken to the Chief Fire Officer about it. "Anyway this would be the last visionless budget" Backer predicted, as come 2001 the budget will be presented by a PNC government with a vision and foresight which would make even the heavyweights across the floor get up and say 'Thank God for the PNC!'" "Dreamer!" was all that came back yesterday. The preliminary bout between PNC MP Kadim Khan and Works Minister Anthony Xavier was described by the latter as an unfair contest between a lightweight and a heavyweight. But Khan concentrated on the Minister of Works' soft underbelly - namely the Mon Repos Sea Defence report and the old chestnut the Essequibo Road Project. By the way, the budget was the most laughable document he had ever seen and Khan predicted "we would be slaves for eternity" in the new world of free trade. He asked if the honourable member could tell the house when and where the Mon Repos sea defence report had been published. When Xavier rose he informed Khan he had sent the document to Desmond Hoyte and wondered why the PNC leader had not shared it with his party. Khan lambasted the government for the Essequibo road project saying that it was the first project they undertook in February 1993 and it was still to be completed "sometime this year". Xavier's speech was skewered by comments about the Charity wharf and "give us a date!" to his predictions of completed projects. He admitted the problems and delays on the Essequibo road and had little to add. But he thought it a little rich that Khan could criticise the PPP on sea defence works "when in their whole term of office they spent $300M and the government has spent to date $3.4B - get your facts straight!" he exclaimed. He said the criteria for the evaluation of the Berbice River Bridge Project tenders was before the cabinet and he hoped within a few weeks to announce a successful bid. He promised in front of all the members of parliament and four television cameras that the bridge set to start construction in November of this year would be completed not later than October 31st 2002. "That's a promise!"
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