This government is in a mad scramble

to appease those it regards as its

constituents

Dear Editor,
I thought that I had ceased being amazed at the nonsense coming from the mouth of the minister responsible for citizens’ security in this country.  It was reported that Mr. Clement Rohee claims that the political opposition has turned Colwyn Harding’s suffering into a political football.  I ask just who is the minister speaking to?
Recent editorials in both independent dailies have lamented the government’s response to Harding’s complaints made against a serving police rank who – from all indications will be let off scot free just because the government is angry at being forced to acknowledge belatedly that the police force is out of control.
We are asked to wait on the results of an investigation and the inconclusive statements from the medical fraternity are thrown into the mix to further muddy the waters if not to vex the spirit.
Yet on the other hand without even the assurance that an investigation was conducted into the allegations of the Number 48 village residents, we are told that an entire station will be transferred.  Editor, who is to say that the passing car suspected to have been involved in the robbery, was not outfitted to appear as a police vehicle?
What happened was that this PPP-led government has as is its wont engaged in a mad scramble to appease who it regard as its constituents.  No such action has been directed against the Timehri crew albeit outside of a completed investigation.   I predict that the police and by extension the PPP government are stonewalling and biding their time secure in the expectation that the matter will go the way of other no less heinous assaults on our sensibilities.
We are expected to accept the different approaches taken by the police when we justifiably stage protests.  Linden, Kwakwani  and Agricola residents are confronted with an aggressive posture on the part of the police, while Number 48 village, and Meten-Meer-zorg are handled with kid gloves.
It is time that the police and government realize that the eyes of the world are on these forms of blatantly unprofessional actions which appear to be leaning toward ethnic considerations.  Imagine people blocking a public road and hurling explosive devices at a police vehicle and no one is arrested, but a woman is beaten by a policeman in the full glare of cameras and is allowed to feel that he did no wrong.  In speaking about police reform they hope to assuage their image of rank incompetence and rampant corruption throughout the force.
The time will come – and it is not too distant, when this Guyana Police Force will devour even those who are only too happy to ignore our constant fears of a brute unleashed.  I commend Mr. E.B. John for a letter which is sure to evoke the type of soul searching and anger that we seem to have lost.  Our fate surely lies in the hands of a free and independent media which provide the necessary avenue to let the philistines know that they have lost their way.  I am disgusted.
Sylvia St. Romain