Guyana not in “really bad state” – Ramjattan
Crime spiralling out of control
…MP calls for Minister to be reassigned or fired
The impression that Guyana is in a “really bad state” as compared to other countries with regard to the country’s crime rate is “not true”.
This is according to Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, who at a press conference on Friday said: “sometimes this thing is emblazoned across the front pages of newspapers giving the impression as though we are in a real bad state, [but it’s] not really true”.
He stated that although crimes are occurring, there must be an appreciation of the fact that Guyanese live in a geopolitical space (Latin America and the Caribbean) where interpersonal violence is the highest in the world.
However, this analysis of the escalating crime situation in Guyana did not go down well with Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Harry Gill; a Member of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on the Security Sector, who in no uncertain terms called for the Minister to either be reassigned or fired as Public Security Minister.
“Like most Guyanese, I am totally disgusted by all the brutal, senseless killings and barefaced robberies taking place every day throughout the country, and the apparent lack of any coherent plan by the Minister of Public Security to end this escalating crime spree,” Gill said in a letter to the editor on Saturday.
He added that the ease with which criminals are going about their business, “brutalising families in their homes, stripping them of their valuables, their dignity and often, their very lives, is reminiscent of the infamous Burnham era of the notorious kick down the door bandits. And Minister Khemraj Ramjattan seems clueless and in denial,” he added.
