Gov’t. holding Guyanese hostage – AFC

With the threat of another crime wave staring the country in its face, the call for a highly trained, professional police force, free from political interference is being repeated.
This time around the Alliance For Change (AFC) has added its voice to the call for those with responsibility for the security of the nation to “put up or shut up.”
The party is accusing the PPP/C Government of “holding Guyanese hostage by insisting on retaining Clement Rohee as Minister of Home Affairs.”
“While the Administration continues to hold on to the present Minister of Home Affairs, our citizens are picked out and executed by criminals who seem to be operating with impunity,” the party said in a statement yesterday.
The statement comes in the wake of recent murders and execution-style killings which have left many Guyanese almost convinced that the country is in the middle of another crime wave similar to the one that paralysed a major part of the country between 2002-2008.
Despite this, Commissioner of Police (ag) Leroy Brumell, a few weeks ago had urged that there is no need to ‘press the panic button’.
But according to the AFC, regardless of what is being said, the rate at which gun crimes are increasing is cause for panic.
“The criminals and we believe many are involved in or connected to the narco-arms business, seem able to do as they please without any concern for the law. It is almost on a daily basis that we open the newspaper to read that another Guyanese has lost their life. While our people are being executed, the government’s only solution seems to be, ‘blame the Opposition’,” the AFC said.
The party said that it has repeatedly called for a professional Police Force that is equipped to make use of modern technologies.
However it said that for this to happen, there must be the political will which the party finds singularly lacking.
This lack of political will was traced back to the PPPC scuttling of the British-funded Security Sector Reform Project.
“The Alliance For Change maintains its call for Rohee to demit the office of the Minister of Home Affairs. He has been proven incompetent and while he continues to hold that office, we have no reason to believe that crime and security will be addressed in any meaningful and comprehensive way,” the AFC said.
The AFC position is in contrast with the view of President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry Clinton Urling, who recently stated that removing Rohee will not solve the problem.
“Getting rid of Rohee will not solve the problem. You are not going to see criminals shaking in their shoes saying ‘Hey, Rohee’s gone, we need to get our act together and not commit crimes.’ I don’t see that happening,” Urling told an audience at the Pegasus Hotel last Friday.
However, the AFC is adamant that for the years that Rohee has held Ministerial responsibility for the Police Force “we have seen a worsening of crime – more guns on the streets, more vicious crimes, organised criminal gangs, few successful prosecutions.”
The party maintained that as the Minister, the ‘buck stops at Rohee.’
“All shortcomings of the police force, the escalation in crime, the breakdown in law and order, must be laid at his door. It is clear that he cannot handle the portfolio of Home Affairs Minister and as such he must go and it is incumbent on the President to ensure that a capable replacement is found.”
Last year the Opposition passed a no confidence motion against Rohee in the National Assembly, and since then there has been a campaign of non-cooperation with anything that he brings to the table in Parliament.