Dear Editor,
Did Donald Ramotar really find amusing the WikiLeaks cables with their references to murder, phantom squads, anti-government criminal gangs, possible plots to assassinate prominent citizens and a US ambassador, the rise of warlord zones like Buxton terrorizing people, the murder of a government minister, PPP government officials compromised by drug cartels, the possibility of a narco-state developing and the appointment of a Commissioner of Police who the Americans alleged benefited from the profits of the drug trade, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat allegedly proposing sanctions other than prosecution for drug traffickers and allegations of corruption?
Did Mr Ramotar, who has headed the PPP since 1997 find it mildly amusing that the people of this nation have been pawns to the incompetence of a PPP government that has done nothing to protect them against crime? Do PPP supporters who rank crime as their highest priority find it mildly amusing that the PPP they religiously mark that X for has done absolutely nothing to protect this nation?
Guyana has emerged from a non-player to a major drug trafficking nation under the PPP and particularly under the watch of President Jagdeo. Mr Ramotar says he wants Mr Jagdeo as an advisor. It isn’t mildly amusing that a government stands idly by, making half-hearted comedic efforts and refuses foreign help to battle a scourge that has infected this nation?
Mr Ramotar probably finds a joke in everything. But people being killed by drug kingpins, and criminal gangs, and people living in absolute fear is not funny business. For those living in Pradoville, they are protected. They are immune to what the common Guyanese faces who lives a life of fear of crime. They are constantly looking over their shoulder.
The PPP has failed on crime. It has failed miserably on crime. As long as drug cartels remain in business, guns will continue to flow easily into Guyana because guns for drugs is one of the easiest barters in the business. As long as guns continue to enter Guyana, they will be used for wrongdoing. Some people will get guns. They will form gangs. They will start their own criminal enterprises. They will murder, maim and corrupt. As long as poverty and inequality exist, and there is a conducive atmosphere for criminality, crime will rise in Guyana and Guyanese will have to live in fear.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
