Ramjattan threatens to close businesses, bars at 12

Party done

– if public outcry continues over 2am curfew

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan has threatened to close businesses and bars at 12:00am if the public

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan

outcry continues over his self-imposed 2am curfew further enforcing the laws.
On Friday, in the face of public pressure, Ramjattan maintained his stance on his Ministry’s 2 am curfew, saying that any change to that would be to bring it forward, rather than pushing it backward.
Ramjattan on Friday joined Finance Minister Winston Jordon and State Minister Joseph Harmon at the post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
He maintained that there was a correlation between the consumption of alcohol and crime in Guyana, noting the he would not be backpedalling on the decision, which, according to him, has been producing favourable results. However, he did not produce any evidence to support his contention.
Evidently then, the Minister is the only one who appears to have seen results as he had promised that as a result of the curfew, there would be a reduction in crime and higher levels of productivity among the working populace.
Much to bemusement of his critics, neither has taken place.
“It is very much correlated; heavy drinking with violence, abuse of women and so on and I am not going to change that. The law is that it must be at 12 o’ clock. It’s only the high-ranking hotels and so on that can go until 2 in the morning,” he told Journalists.
The Public Security Minister said should there be any change in this regard, it would be to take it forward to the original 12am curfew.
Ramjattan said the things that will have to be done to see crime reduction will always be unpopular. However, he said he was willing to do these unpopular things to see a reduction in crime here.
“We have to set standards here, otherwise we’re going to have young people more out in the streets late at night, drinking and misbehaving.”
He said “a lot of the wives and women are saying it is a good thing because it has brought ‘my husband home earlier and he got a little more money in his pocket’”.
Last month, Government, through the Public Security Ministry, introduced a 2am curfew for nightclubs and restaurants and bars countrywide while threatening to revoke the licences of those who fail to comply.
The move was met with severe criticism from sections of society and the political Opposition, which said that imposing such a restriction would do nothing to reduce the rising incidence of crime.
The curfew took its full effect since the beginning of July, much to the dismay of restaurant/bar proprietors, club owners and partygoers.
Guyana Times understands that although an official announcement was made regarding the curfew, many prominent bars still remained open past 02:00h.
The imposition of the 02:00h curfew even sparked many debates within the public domain, with the majority of the commentators condemning the Minister for this decision, citing that it was an extremely ineffective and poor move to fight crime.
But unrelenting in his cause, Minister Ramjattan has staunchly maintained that the 02:00h curfew can change the society for the better.
In a recent press release, his Ministry reiterated this position, pointing out that alcohol consumption is closely related to crime; violence, such as domestic violence; traffic accidents, and a decline in the productive capacities of the population, especially the young, along with other attendant circumstances, including the adverse effects of the proliferation of noise nuisance.