Something meaningful
Editorial
Stabroek News
April 20, 2003
There must be many puzzled souls in the community who would like to be the proverbial fly on the wall when the movers and shakers in Freedom House gather around the table for a brainstorming session on the crime situation. How, the citizens of Demerara are wondering, did they arrive at the conclusion that there was no crisis in the country? By what logic did they argue themselves into a position that the right response in the current circumstances was to do nothing? What evidence did they adduce to persuade themselves that if they just ignored the problem for long enough it would go away? And exactly how did they talk themselves into believing that they could persuade the harried inhabitants of this land that failure to cope was really competence and lightning-quick reaction?
From the statements of a few Ministers of Government, there is a hint that they are not entirely oblivious to the economic disaster that crime in its present manifestation has brought in its train. They are not, it seems, altogether unaware of the fact that it has smothered entrepreneurship and inhibited investment. Comments made recently by the Minister of Home Affairs suggest they are not insensitive either to the latest exodus of some of the few remaining professionals and businesspeople, who are leaving the country because they see no solution in sight. So if the Government knows that the economic development to which they are so committed is impossible in the current circumstances, why are they still refusing to do anything about the root problem?
Of course, the administration has belaboured us with a list of the things which it has done to contain crime. Other than allotting funds for the security forces - a necessary prerequisite for anything at all to be achieved - most of the measures have been at best tangential and at worst irrelevant. We have had a march against and press releases about crime from the governing party; countrywide consultations on crime; four new (controversial) crime bills, under which no one has been charged, and whose deterrent effect, therefore, is nil; army patrols along the East Coast; and the blocking of bridges between Buxton and the front-line villages.
Where the last two are concerned, the GDF has been cooling its heels in Buxton, Annandale and environs for months now. That is not a job for soldiers, more particularly when they have no more powers than ordinary citizens in terms of the apprehension of suspects, and when they are really not trained in police work. The army is a blunt instrument for the control of domestic situations, and should be used only for short, sharp operations in emergencies, not for long, drawn-out police work. It is true that this is an emergency; however, the military is being misused, and the fundamental issue is still not being addressed.
Similarly, the blocking of the bridges can only be a temporary measure, and should have been part and parcel of a more radical exercise, or if not, followed by some more radical exercise. What we have, in fact, is the Government dancing around the fire in an attempt to contain it, but making no move to extinguish the flames.
And now we have reached the nadir in a string of low points, when on the same day, first a US diplomat was kidnapped, and then a schoolboy. In human terms there was nothing better or worse about the kidnapping of an American security official than anyone else - all kidnappings are an offence against humanity; however, in international terms this particular one has done the country enormous damage. The only redeeming feature of it was that Mr Lesniak was released unharmed. This was not so in the case of the kidnapped schoolboy, who was savagely beaten and then suffocated, even although a ransom had been paid. What have we come to, that a schoolchild can suffer in this way, and a foreign diplomat can be seized with all that that implies for us internationally, and the Government is still not incited to act?
It is the kidnappings, more than anything else, which have alarmed parents up and down the country. While the stalwarts might stay in Guyana where only their own security could be at risk, which among them will gamble with the safety of their children if there are other viable options open to them?
We surely are at the end of the road of Government prevarication, indecision and inaction in relation to crime. The problem is not insoluble, and the means is at hand to solve it. Apart from a realistic plan of action, what it requires above all else is an act of will from the administration. Will this limp, irresolute Government stop mouthing platitudes and do what it was elected to do. Will it finally grapple with the problem at its source, make up its mind, and do something meaningful.
