Dear Editor,

After reading Ms Tricia Teekah’s letter in the SN of September 27, 2008, captioned ‘Our leaders are failing to protect us from criminals,’ I gathered a few of her issues raised in the letter have merit while others are mere perceptions.

There is no doubt that violence in any form, especially that perpetrated against women must not be tolerated. It was indeed appalling to read the stories of the University of Guyana student that was attacked in Berbice as well as the nurses at Linden. However, Ms Teekah during the course of her letter, using familiar propaganda rhetoric, portrays an outlook that our country’s future is gloomy. In her perceptions she pointed out issues of escalating unemployment, freedom of expression, migration and crime, and further stated that our leaders are failing to protect us from criminals.

I’m not aware of any rising unemployment rate in the country, nor have I seen any study or survey done to substantiate her claim. What she probably missed is that there are types of unemployment, such as seasonal ones that would be present in a predominately agricultural area such as Berbice.

She is very fortunate that under the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) administration many inalienable rights were restored after 1992; one important one is that she now enjoys freedom of expression and the press.

Migration and crime are not new to Guyana or any part of the world. These types of challenges, especially that of crime continues to engage the urgent attention of the administration as well as of the relevant agencies. There are isolated cases that occur from time to time, but they seldom have any effect on the perceived increase of the crime rate, as portrayed by Miss Teekah. Each year billions of dollars are disbursed to the security agencies for the purpose of the acquisition of arms, ammunition, transportation, etc; legislation is enacted; training and capacity building takes place; intelligence gathering is maximized; and the judiciary continues to be upgraded and improved – all to deal with current trends of criminal activities, among other things.

The government spends additional sums to train, equip and make mobile the two hundred and eleven plus community policing groups country wide, in addition to the neighbourhood police that were established to augment the ranks of the Guyana Police Force.

However, there are those leaders elected to parliament who sit on the opposite side of the house and who continue to oppose any anti-crime initiative or lend support to the government in their zero-tolerance policy on crime.

I would like to assure Ms Teekah that the People’s Progressive Party government will continue to protect and safeguard the interest of all Guyanese, whether they voted or did not vote for the PPP.

Yours faithfully,
Ronald Harsawack