Rohee, private sector clash at fiery Chambers meeting
…chambers say forum was a failure
“Members did not turn up to the meeting, because they anticipated what was going to happen and it was not the first meeting we had with Mr Rohee– One we had two years ago in Number 64 Village– and his behaviour was the same, if not worse.
“This will only turn businessmen away from him, so I think we need to take our issues to higher authority” said President of the CCCC, Mr Lakeram Rambrich.
L to R: Pres of CCCC, Mr Rambrich, Mr Rohee and MP Jaffarally at the heated meeting
Rambrich was very upset at the outcome of the meeting and called it a “failure”. “I think it’s been a failure, because he [Clement Rohee] failed to address any issue”.
The Berbice Chambers of Commerce had a meeting with Clement Rohee, the Minister of Home Affairs. The three Chambers (New Amsterdam, Central and Upper Corentyne) had asked Mr Clement Rohee to meet with them to discuss “burning issues” relating to security.
He did last Saturday at Nand Persaud Rice Complex at Number 36 Village, Corentyne. But there were more disagreements than agreements during the fiery meeting with the Minister and several members of the business community.
The Minister clashed with the private sector on various issues, including a specific one which dealt with the slow response of the police to a recent robbery at Bengal Farm on the Corentyne, whereby it was alleged that several Corentyne police stations’ phones were engaged for very long periods and then they kept forwarding the robbery complaint to other stations, and the police took some 45 minutes to arrive.
Speaking about the slow response to crime, Member of Parliament, Faizal M. Jaffarally complained to the Minister that a specific case occurred a few days ago. It was a robbery on the Corentyne that saw a long response time by the police.
“Shortly after the robbery, the police at # 51 Police Station, their phones were engaged for 15 minutes, the people subsequently called the #62 Toll Station who referred them to Springlands Police station; Springlands referred them to Whim; Whim referred them to New Amsterdam and then some time after, they had a response– 45 minutes after– that is not good enough in my opinion”.
Deputy Commander of ‘B’ Division, Eric Bassant, defended the police. “The time it takes for the police to receive proper information may take some time so the general populace will view the police at responding in a very slow manner”.
He noted that the police usually take somewhere between five and 20 minutes to respond from the time they would have received the report.
Bassant said, too, that all of the officers and Station Sergeants have been briefed on the Standard Operational Procedures. He said that should a particular station not have the capability to respond to the crime, that station is supposed to get on to the Operations Room in New Amsterdam who will “channel the information and we will take the information to the nearest patrol who will respond immediately”.
Rohee said that people should not get too frustrated about that issue and asked, “Does that happen all the time? There was one situation that was mentioned. Why do we want to take that one bad experience to make it look as though this is what is happening all the time? We have to be very surgical in our thinking”.
Rohee said those are exceptions to the rule “and this matter was an exception”. He noted that what should have happened in such a situation, was that a note be taken by the senior rank to have it investigated.
“But if we take the position that this one incident means that it happens all the time, then we will condemn the whole police force and throw (the police) into the Corentyne River”.
But the President of the CCCC differed. “If we are going to head that way, then there is not going to be a way forward…We are from a business sector and if we have to go through the circles of getting things done…If we are complaining to the highest authority that these things are happening and you are telling us that we must keep writing, then we are going to head nowhere”.
An argument then ensued. “What is your solution?” asked Rohee.
Rambrich said that nobody would want to sit down and write, “because we already told you about the complaint”.
The joint Chambers will soon issue a statement, he said, and this will be sent to President Donald Ramotar for further action.
I am sure GNI does have more accomplished folks who keep a low profile.