Dear Editor,
Those running and ruining this country cannot see further than their own hubris, hauteur, egomania and self-preservation. They detest justified criticism against their incompetence and ineptitude. Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee is one such individual who cannot see beyond his emperor’s clothes. Mr Rohee vituperates against Stabroek News because it evaluates photographic proof and openly queried the manner in which the recently recaptured Mazaruni escapees were kept. This very same Minister whose portfolio includes responsibility for prisons has nothing to say about the shameful mismanagement of the very prison system he oversees, which offered little resistance to two inmates escaping during a game of cricket. This is neither the first time prisoners have escaped with ease from Mazaruni or other prisons under the PPP, nor the first time questions have been raised about treatment of prisoners at Mazaruni and other prisons. The photograph triggering Stabroek News’ commentary was only possible because of the gross deficiencies in the management and security of the Mazaruni Prison system for which Mr Rohee is the final overseer. Why doesn’t Minister Rohee, writer of admonitions against fearless newspapers and utterer of senseless criticisms, actually fix the Mazaruni Prison to prevent two inmates escaping during a game of cricket before straining himself by putting pen to paper to answer valid criticism?
When will Minister Rohee launch a psychops campaign against corruption in the Guyana Police Force? Wasn’t Mr Rohee the Minister of Home Affairs with direct authority over the Guyana Police Force when a small group of high level police members took kickbacks from the purchase of a $16.9M boat in 2009 which has hardly worked and is now up for auction? What did this busy bard of inane letters to the press do when this scourge of corruption occurred? He demanded repayment of all the money from the corrupters. Not one crook who committed a crime in this fraudulent transaction was prosecuted. No charges were laid. Nobody lost their job. Nobody was brought before the courts. The media were not informed of this heinous crime against the people when it occurred. Mr Rohee who has the temerity to condemn Stabroek News over a justifiable question literally buried this disease. What this action communicated to others in the GPF is that theft, corruption and misfeasance are fine, because if one is caught, he/she will not be exposed but will only have to repay the cost of the corruption. It is a sickeningly abject action by Minister Rohee where the buck stops. This kind of disaster destroys the fabric of the integrity of the Police Force. Even worse, when corrupt funds are obtained and invested to generate higher returns, the crooks are too happy to return the stolen or illegally obtained funds because they have already acquired a profit using those funds. This simple arithmetic is too difficult for the mental mass index of the PPP hierarchy to comprehend.
When a corrupt government behaves in this manner in allowing brazen acts of corruption in an organization (Guyana Police Force) deeply distrusted by the public and widely condemned by society for its rampant corruption, it raises the question as to the existence of an incestuous relationship between the government and the police. If corruption in the Police Force is not stamped out with forcefulness, it means that the corrupt who are offered respite in the Police Force will never confront those who are corrupt in government. Minister Rohee needs to name the officers who were involved in the boat scam. The opposition must demand those names and details about this scam.
For officers involved in this level of wrongdoing not to be prosecuted reflects the fact that the government has undermined the national security of the state and the integrity of the country’s law enforcement. National security is undermined because the public cannot trust that the leadership of the police force is independent, impartial and beyond political manipulation not to act against the interests of the state by seeking to preserve the interests of individuals. If this response to corruption within the Police Force enables police officers to protect corrupt individuals to the detriment of the state, it means national security is threatened. If high-ranking police officers are beholden to a government for ‘going easy’ on them for criminal acts, then those officers will not only subvert their independence and constitutional duties when confronted with matters necessitating the prosecution of an official, but will use their authority to direct thousands of low-ranking policemen and policemen to act in a manner that is contrary to the principles of integrity, protection of the state, advancement of justice and the advancement of a law-abiding society. This damages the integrity of the entire force and in doing so, causes more of the populace to disregard the GPF and to craft their own rule of law. The PPP needs to fix corruption and ethnically balance the armed forces before it pushes this country to the very brink.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
