President Bharrat Jagdeo's address to the State Investiture Ceremony last October had a familiar ring to it as he called for "Every citizen to be a soldier for peace..." After all, many still remember that the motto and battle cry of the defunct Guyana People's Militia (GPM) was "Every Citizen a Soldier".
The President's call came at the height of the crime surge which seemed to have all but exhausted the manpower and material resources of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Guyana Police Force (GPF). To counter the crime surge, the Administration announced plans to create more units such as an air wing, marine wing, armoured-car unit and special weapons team for the police. These will certainly require more manpower for the GPF. And if the crime surge persists, or spreads to other areas, and if the President's promise to establish a military base in the Pomeroon-Supenaam Region materialises, the need will arise also for more manpower for the GDF.
Both the Police Force and the Defence Force need to have viable reserves of trained personnel who could reinforce the regular element in emergencies. The simple rationale for maintaining reserves is that it would be impossible to train large numbers of persons in a short period to support the forces in a crisis. Equally, it would be imprudent to maintain high levels of regular manpower if there was no work for them to do.
Reserve units are not as expensive to maintain as regulars because they do not have to be fed, housed, paid etc, on a daily basis, and are effective because they would deliver numbers of trained people when needed for limited periods.
Thus, reserves are still maintained in more developed countries and were a feature of administration of British Guiana. In the colonial period, the Police Force had a Special Reserve Force (constabulary) attached to it and, given the frequency of fires in Georgetown and elsewhere, there was even an auxiliary Fire Service. But the longest-standing and best organised reserves were the volunteer forces and militias established by the Dutch since about 1743, and maintained continuously by the British, a period of over two centuries.
That was until the PNC-UF coalition Administration demobilised the British Guiana Volunteer Force, relegating it to being the second battalion of the GDF, in May 1966, on the eve of Independence. That was a big mistake. But, as the national security situation deteriorated in the 1970s, the Administration wisely decided to re-establish its military reserve force under the name 'Guyana People's Militia'. It was a time of international destabilisation and, a few weeks before the formal launching of the GPM, Guyana suffered its worst terrorist attack when 11 of its citizens were killed in the Cubana Airline disaster in October 1976.
Under the slogan, "Every Citizen a Soldier", GPM attracted thousands of volunteers who would maintain their employment and remain in their home- regions while attending short periods of training in the afternoons, or on weekends, and longer camps once a year.
The GPM became a parallel force to the GDF with its own officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Special armstores were constructed in police stations and drill halls were established for training and administration. From time to time, GPM reservists participated in exercises with GDF regulars, were available for civil defence work in their home regions, and during internal security crises could be called out to support the regular troops and protect the populace from the ravages of criminals and renegade vigilantes. Much of this vital local security activity came to an end in 1998, however, when the PPP-C Administration downsized and relegated the Militia to being a unit in the GDF as the 'Second Infantry Battalion Group', repeating the PNC-UF's mistake 32 years earlier. The Militia's numbers shrank from thousands to a few hundred, units disappearing completely in some regions. As a result of this policy which also saw the eradication of the para-military Guyana National Service, military reserves have largely disappeared.
There are now no ready reserves to assist either the Police or Defence Force in counter-crime operations. It would be hard for 'every citizen to be a soldier' when the organisation which provided them with administration, command, training and equipment has been miniaturised.