Dear Editor,
Over last weekend, I was in receipt of several telephone calls from concerned residents of the Buxton/Friendship community, and had some of their stories confirmed by eyewitnesses.
Briefly, raids over the weekend had persons conducting registration and children attending Sunday school with bibles and prayer books in hand, scampering along the public road at the approach of armed security forces.
Further, bulldozers were stationed at the southern end of the village – was this to demolish the village farms?
The livelihood of those people can be compromised by those who seem to be victims of a new form of terror by some apparently well meaning, but ill-trained security personnel.
The trouble is, here and elsewhere too many of our leaders and their subordinates still cling to an old world view of internal and of foreign relations, characterized by brute force, and without realizing it, ignoring the demands of justice, shared governance and democracy in a new world.
We share the security forces’ attempt to apprehend and bring to justice all criminal elements stalking the land on the east coast and elsewhere.
But an entire community should not be made victims in their operations – of course, the question of the military being used to do essential police work is another matter of some concern.
The vast majority of people in Buxton, and indeed every village on the east coast including Lusignan are God-fearing, decent and hard working citizens.
I believe the state apparatus should use a different approach to solve this problem of criminality.
It is no secret that if in a society the cooperation of all law-abiding citizens is not secured, the quest to solve crime is made difficult.
But, if the security operations are badly planned and unprofessionally executed, as seems to be in this case, then instead of earning the cooperation, support and sympathy of the residents, they will receive the opposite and unwittingly support those who they set out to apprehend.
Beyond this dilemma, many of us who want to help are treated as alien elements and victims of unhappy propaganda.
The government noted it is interested in peace and wishes to be a government of all the people.
If this be the case, it will do well to embrace the zeal, expertise, experience and willingness of every patriot, and have the good sense to know that many true patriots exist outside of the ranks of the PPP and state.
They must not fail to recognize the difference between the sycophant and peace loving patriots. The latter can help, but the government and their propaganda machine must recognize the difference.
At this stage, Guyana must be committed to faith, authentic freedom, justice and family. Its commitment to faith should not be a narrow sectarianism, but respect for all traditions, religions, ethnic groups and cultural practices.
We must encourage the establishment of institutions such as some form of National Service, so that, young people of every ethnic group, every religion, every social background can meet, study, work and play together in a controlled environment and in this way come to respect and love one another.
If we do not do this, what we saw last week and over the past few years may very well be just the tip of the iceberg, and thus betray the legacy of the founders of our respective religions, and nation state.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP
Ambassador of Peace
