Crime and Carnage
December 1, 2015 By GuyanaTimes
There is a wave of crime as well as an increase of road fatalities across the country. To deny the existence of these social ills is delusional and self-efficacious. If there is ever a similarity of reporting in the four dailies, it is on crime and carnage on the roads. The horrendous headlines in the dailies suggest Guyana is at war with itself battling internal demons. What is even more troubling is that Guyana is losing the battle as crime and carnage have engulfed the country, reaching dangerous heights.
Statistics on Police website indicate that crime and road carnage have increased in the past six months precisely when the new regime came into power. Crime has increased by 8 per cent for the period between January 01, 2015 and October 31, 2015. By contrast, crime had increased by 0.2 per cent during the same period in 2014 and 2013. According to US Department of State, the murder rate in Guyana ranges from 15 to 18 per 100,000 which is the fourth highest murder rate in South America and three times higher than the US.
Other sources place the murder rate as high as 20 per 100,000 making Guyana one of the most homicidal countries in the world. Guyana has a population of around 750,000.
Similarly, road fatalities have been on the rise. So far, there have been over 100 deaths compared to 146 in 2014. A disturbing 40 per cent of fatalities are children. Equally disturbing is that these unnecessary fatalities have been on the rise in the month of November, the Road Safety month. There were about 20 road deaths in November compared to 8, 10 and 6 in August, September and October respectively.
Regrettably, road carnage continues to snuff out the most important resources in our society: human beings. Medical costs are high and so is stress and trauma on families, communities and the economy.
Continuous crime is coterminous with weaknesses in policy and policing which criminals have exploited effectively while road carnage emanates from lawlessness, speeding, driving under the influence, congestion, overcrowded vehicles, recklessness, tailgating, inexperienced driving, shabby police work, among other factors.
The government, of course, is aware of these problems and has launched a series of programmes to tackle carnage as well as calling on the public to exercise caution and care. This is a right move in the right direction since crime and carnage are not a partisan problem but affect all. This is not about harbouring differences but rather about harnessing differences to provide suggestions to stamp out the twin evils of crime and carnage. While the government and police will shoulder the responsibility for providing safer roads for the general public, citizens must be involved and must play a meaningful role such as reject travelling in overcrowded vehicles. Nonetheless, by the end of the day, the reduction of road fatalities will depend largely on the effectiveness of the traffic department and government.
There is, however, a deeper problem here. Guyana is the third poorest country, after Nicaragua and Haiti, in the Americas. Moreover, these countries are not necessarily failed states but they do display suboptimal characteristics. Their power grid, namely in the area of national security, is unreliable, susceptible to malfunction and breakdown.
Thirty years ago national security weaknesses might have not mattered to international security. In the post -modern world, international security is unavoidable as the focus is not necessarily on the all powerful, all conquering states but rather on failed states and states that are on the verge of failing.
These states are not able to maintain law and order internally and protect their territory from external threats, whatever that might be (drug trafficking, terrorism, money laundering, gun smuggling, etc). That the US recently gave Guyana huge sums of money is indicative of the aforesaid challenge the political world system is facing.
At the national level, the situation is also ominous. Political leaders are home-grown and insular and even when they make meaningful contact with the wider world they are still insular because their training, skills, and values are inconsistent with the demands of effective government. They are patrimonial to party politics but incompetent, a consequence of their limited educational background.
In Guyana, after a period of wait and watch, the private sector has come out in no shallow terms and announced that high rates of crime cannot be pushed under the rug. The current regime, of course, has denied that crime has gotten out of control, pointing to the dip in crime in some areas. Such an explanation, however, does not exonerate the fact that crime occurs at unacceptable levels.
That crime continues unabated is a reflection of Kemraj Ramjattan’s limited skills in National Security matters. He may have attended one of the best Law Schools in the region and may be a man of substance but so far he has shown that he does not have things done. That said, the most serious challenge this man faces in dealing with crime is: How does he project power –effective policies and procedures – in areas where he is neither physically present nor competent? He has failed dismally in both areas. It is time for Ramjattan to go. His time is up. (lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu)
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