Do something
Editorial
Stabroek News
September 8, 2002
The Government’s capacity for misjudgement is seemingly infinite. They are not exceptional in this regard; it is a characteristic of all weak governments in a crisis. First there is no acknowledgement that there is a crisis; second, there is a lack of congruity between the reality and the responses to that reality; and third, there is the sense of a vacuum at the epicentre of power.
It should be added too that there is often a loss of the capacity to listen on the part of timorous governments in critical situations. That this particular Government does not listen to its critics is nothing new; administrations the world over are not given to heeding the the advice - even well-meaning advice - of their perceived opponents. No, what is important in this case is that the governing party is not listening to its supporters either.
Could it be that President Jagdeo has been spending too much time out of the country recently, so he is not picking up the vibes? Could it be that when the Ministers zoom along the highways and byways of Greater Georgetown in their sealed Prados, they are effectively quarantined from the psychic oppression which is afflicting the rest of us? Could it be that the impermeable walls of Freedom House are effectively excluding the sounds of anguish coming from some of the PPP/C’s own constituents?
Perhaps the President, the Cabinet and members of the PPP/C Executive Committee should go and spend a few nights (and days) in Annandale, Strathspey or Non Pariel. Perhaps then they would get some inkling of the fear that grips these communities. Perhaps they should walk down the road on their own two feet instead of rolling past on four wheels, and speak to ordinary folk. Perhaps then they might get some inkling of the psychological damage being inflicted on this nation.
Perhaps they should go and talk to some of the businessmen and ask about the state of commerce. Perhaps then they would get some inkling of the devastating impact the breakdown of law and order is having on the economy. Perhaps they should go and stand in the departure lounge of the airport before a North American flight leaves. Perhaps then they might get an inkling of how our small pool of skilled human resources is being depleted further.
In this month’s Stabroek Business which appeared on September 2, Mr Norman McLean gave figures for the crime wave over the past six months. (Perhaps the President and his Ministers should go and read these too.) Given the events of last week, some of those figures are already out of date, nonetheless, they make their point:- 9 policemen killed and 17 injured; 3 security guards killed and 7 injured; 5 businessmen killed and 75 injured; 689 armed robberies; 73 car hijackings; 4,826 indictable crimes - and all of this in a country of three-quarters of a million people which even in its darkest days has never experienced anything on this scale within such a contracted time frame. How can the Government not think that we have a crisis on our hands? And how can the Government not believe that its responses to date have been ineffectual?
While the Government dreams, more and more bandits are being recruited, while some, it might appear, are also being trained - if such a word can be used in the context. In a story which attracted little attention a few weeks ago, we reported on an armed robbery in a squatting area. It was probably opportunistic, since the householder had left her back door open with the intention of going outside, and the sum of money taken by the robbers was small.
The significance of the incident lay in the fact that it was conducted like a training exercise, as if the bandits were more concerned with the efficiency of the operation, than with the proceeds of the robbery. The two bandits inside the house were timed throughout by one outside who was looking at a watch, and they called out to him periodically to find out how much “time” they had left.
Following the attack on Annandale by teenagers a week last Friday, residents told this newspaper that a man who was older than the others had appeared to be directing the assaults. So what is it we have here? Guyana’s very own, albeit more brutal version of Oliver Twist - a school for bandits?
How can a government - any government - passively allow the very foundations of the state to be eroded by escalating criminal activity of this kind without engaging in some serious soul searching? There can be no true democracy where lawlessness prevails, where bandits rob and kill with impunity, where policemen are picked off one by one as though they were the targets in a shooting gallery, and where an elected government is impotent to guarantee the minimal security of the citizenry. If the state is to survive, the administration has to awaken from its slumber, rethink its analyses, and accept that it has to do a sequence of things which as yet it has not even attempted. It has to forget pride, it has to forget the traditional rhetoric, it has to forget the past for the moment, and act as the exigencies of the situation demand.
On Friday there were more robberies, and another senior police officer was gunned down. Will the Government please sit down now in an emergency session and make some pragmatic decisions about what the crime situation requires politically, strategically and in terms of manpower and resources.
Whatever it is, will this sleepwalking Government get up off its rear end and do something.