Life has become a living hell in Guyana
Dear Editor,
Not a day passes without Guyanese being reminded of the scourge of crime, especially the armed robberies and the murder of innocent law-abiding citizens in their homes or places of business.
In deep rural Guyana, the plague of farm theft, gold theft and equipment theft from miners by armed bandits continues unabated, thus making life more difficult for all, except the rich and the powerful.
The poor and the working class are heavily burdened to put food on the table but the thought of them being robbed by armed bandits is sending them crazy. Life has become a living hell for them and for those who make the effort and sacrifice to provide financial security and jobs for the rest of the nation. In addition to putting food on the table, this working class group continues to struggle against crime in the face of great odds against them.
As if that was not bad enough, residents of rural communities who use to walk miles, day and night, with no thought of being robbed or harmed, now live in great fear of violent criminals. And the situation is much, much worse in the urban centres, especially in Georgetown and its surroundings, where heavily armed bandits roam the streets robbing and killing innocent citizens without fear of being caught.
As Guyanese from coast to coast cower in fear, statistics have shown that armed robberies and murder have increased significantly since Clement Rohee assumed the Ministry of Home Affairs. People everywhere are complaining about the violence (gun attacks) being carried out on them in their homes and the minister and the police have done nothing to ease their fears or combat crime.
Almost every day, someone is being killed by gangs or armed bandits, and instead of Rohee creating polices to deal with the crime wave, he has accused the opposition APNU of being behind the skyrocketing crime rate. This is so absurd that it does not warrant a comment.
Simply put, Rohee has failed miserably to safeguard the security of the citizens and should be removed from office. And for Nandllal to join him and say that civic organizations including the bar associations are responsible for crimes is beyond being ridiculous. This is how ludicrous Rohee and Nandallal are?
Angry, frustrated, demoralized and scared to death for their lives, Guyanese are running away from Guyana in drools to the Caribbean and North America in search of a better life. The sentiment is not new. During Jagdeo’s presidency, crime has increased tremendously and has become the single greatest disincentive to investment of every sort in Guyana and anecdotal evidence suggests that it is getting worse under Ramotar and Rohee. Despite all the armed robberies and all the murders that are occurring daily in Guyana, Rohee continues to lean on the police statistics that the crime has reduced. Where is he living? Not in Guyana for sure!
The awful truth is that fear spawned by wanton criminality has and continues to destroy the confidence of the people and the fabric of the nation. If this trend continues, the day will come when Guyana will become a vigilante state; ungovernable and unviable. Minister Rohee and his PPP cabal should understand that Guyana will descend into chaos and become a failed state if they do not solve the high crime rate. But first, Rohee has to go.
Investment in new vehicles and equipment for the badly stretched and under-resourced police force is no more than a drop in the bucket. And shifting senior police personnel from one area/region to the next would not solve crime or ease the fears of the people. A different area or region will not change anyone or anything, and recycling them is like transferring incompetence and ineptness from one area to the next.
Reforms and proper and professional training are needed in the force. The minister should know that no amount of money and equipment or the transfer of personnel will solve crime if the society is not mobilized to help the police. The people must gain the trust of the police in order to partner with them to help solve crime.
And therein lies the problem. For while there is plenty of disjointed talk about neighbourhood watches and community policing, we strongly believe that the minority PPP regime is clueless as to how to go about solving crime. Those neighbourhood watches and community policing groups are Band-Aid solutions.
There is no way around it; the PPP regime must understand that crime in itself is not an isolated issue, but is closely related to societal problems such as poverty, lack of jobs, marginalization, and ignorance that must be addressed. We contend that the PPP is more interested in marginalizing one ethnic group and imprisoning the youths rather than getting to the root causes of crime and solve it.
Again we say change is coming to Guyana with APNU’s Pro-Guyana initiative aimed at promoting unity among the races, reducing crime, ending corruption, eradicating poverty, creating jobs for the youths, ending racial discrimination, providing good health care, and making university education available to all.
APNU’s Pro-Guyana initiative will safeguard the security of the citizens, respect their human rights, encourage freedom and promote equality for all under the law. In other words, it will provide a good life for all. Its motto of ‘Guyana is for Guyanese’ offers renewed hope and a new direction and we encourage all to join.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Chandra Deollal, Esq.
