Opposition blanks new Guyana security plan under Rohee

On Monday Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee outlined a new security sector plan which among other things seeks to reform the oft-maligned Guyana Police Force (GPF) and introduce civilian oversight.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Thursday January 3, 2013 – Leader of the opposition grouping, a Partnership for National Unity (APNU), retired Brigadier David Granger says the opposition will not support a new security reform programme outlined by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee earlier this week.

“We are committed to supporting security sector reform, yes we will support any reasonable measure that will make the country safer,” Granger told the Guyana website Demerara Waves, adding “as far as Mr. Rohee is concerned the National Assembly has taken a position and we do not believe that based on his performance over the last six years that we have confidence in him to push these reforms”.

The APNU and the Alliance for Change (AFC) control 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly and have been calling for the resignation of Rohee. They have also vowed not to cooperate with him.

On Monday Rohee outlined a new security sector plan which among other things seeks to reform the oft-maligned Guyana Police Force (GPF) and introduce civilian oversight.

Rohee said he was prepared to work with the opposition parties to ensure proper reporting and accountability.

But David Granger told DemWaves that he was questioning the sincerity behind Rohee’s announcement noting that the embattled minister after making his presentation did not take questions from the media.

“The press sat down there and listened to him running through figures about traffic, nobody asked him about drugs, nobody asked him about piracy, nobody asked him about armed robberies,” Granger told the online website.

He said that he had taken note of the call by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry for them to support the plan. But insisted that would not be done under Rohee’s leadership.

“Mr. Rohee has demonstrated that he does not have the competence to make this country secure and he does not have the confidence of the majority of the National Assembly. We have no reason to believe that he will do over the next four years what he has failed to do over the last six years,” Granger told the website.

AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan told Demerara Waves that he could not dismiss the plan.

“The trouble we have now is that the strategy is supportable … but at this stage I have no confidence in that minister and if it is going to be implemented under his stewardship it will undermine our confidence in the efficacy of its implementation,” Ramjattan said, questioning the timing of Rohee’s announcement.

“This plan was done in 2010 and he didn’t tell the parliament, all the more he shouldn’t be involved in its implementation. Check anywhere and you’ll see that it is important that you share it. Why wait two years and now when he’s being thrown out of the National Assembly he brings it?”