At DFC hearing…
Corentyne teacher suggests conscription for ethnic balancing
Guyana Chronicle
October 14, 2003
SCHOOL teacher Michael Lester Hackett said last Thursday that the Disciplined Forces need to adequately reflect the ethnic composition if they are to serve the Guyanese society.
Testifying before the Disciplined Forces Commission (DFC), he said, presently, the Police and Army are not such an adequate reflection of this multi-ethnic state.
Hackett said they are dominated by one ethnic group and it is unsafe, unfair, immoral, unprofessional and dangerous for such devastating power to reside predominantly in those hands.
He feels such power and heavy burden should be equitably shared among the various ethnic groups that make up the Guyana population.
During his presentation in the New Amsterdam boardroom of the Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) Regional Democratic Council (RDC), Hackett proposed that some form of affirmative action should be taken to ethnically balance the forces.
He suggested a level of conscription of persons from ethnic groups under-represented in the forces to meet quotas set by the relevant recruiting bodies.
Hackett said the personnel doing the recruitment should consult meaningfully with the DFC and the Ethnic Relations Commission and adjust the quotas from year to year as necessitated by prevailing national and social conditions.
He said, with that system in place, it might very well be possible to do ethnic balancing on a biennial basis.
To make the forces more attractive to under-represented groups and others, there should be better working conditions, remuneration with gratuity and pension schemes and more benefits, such as low-cost house lots and low-interest home loans, Hackett suggested.
The Corentyne secondary school teacher said the forces must be more sensitive to the cultures of the various ethnicities and recruits should be required to do courses in cultural anthropology and ethnic relations.
Hackett said cultural psychology or ethno-psychology and a study of the very psychological makeup of individuals would be especially useful to prison officers dealing with prisoners’ reform.
He told the DFC, which is inquiring into the Police, Army, Fire and Prison Services, that the courses mentioned would help broaden understanding of other ethnic groups so that those with the knowledge would know how to better react to their wards daily while acknowledging their own, its biases, fears, insecurities and aspirations.
Hackett argued for special attention to the ethnic relations aspect of the training for the forces so that the ranks are made conscious of the degree to which they reflect cultural biases and prejudices in the Guyanese society.
He stressed that the Joint Services, especially Police, must be more sensitive to the cultural dynamics and pluralism of Guyana.
“Giving the Police more destructive weapons is not sufficient to maintain order when a substantial section of the population is disaffected,” Hackett declared.
He presumed that many of the new recruits into the Police Force are youths who have just completed four or five years of secondary schooling and would have had very little life experience.
Hackett said they would, most likely, be too narrow in outlook and ought to be trained through short stints at social services agencies and similar entities.
According to him, the Police now take between 15 minutes and four hours to respond to crime reports but more rapid response to calls for assistance would either deter criminals or help in their immediate apprehension.
Hackett said a maximum response time of five minutes is not unrealistic for the Police to achieve.
He, too, recommended some degree of decentralisation and devolution of authority within the Police Force, saying it would aid the fostering of accountability and promote closer contact between the local station and the community that is being policed.
Hackett made his proposals before DFC Chairman, Justice of Appeal Ian Chang and members Senior Counsel Charles Ramson, other attorney-at-law Anil Nandlall and retired Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Brigadier David Granger.
Legal Adviser to the Commission Bertlyn Reynolds was also present at the hearing in the ‘Ancient County’.