Coming under fire from various opposition speakers, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee yesterday said that Guyana has been seeing results in its crime fight with the apprehension and deaths of a number of criminals over recent months.
And he defended Guyana’s implementation of its National Drug Strategy Master Plan 2005 to 2009, which the US State Department last week criticised for its slow implementation, more than two years since it was launched.
But the Minister said that the Government is prepared to listen to alternatives presented by the Opposition, saying that in the midst of harsh criticism over the 2008 National Budget, he is waiting to see the plans.
He said that there is no recognition by the opposition of what the Government has done over the years and said that it was as if “we were living in a surreal world.”
Rohee said that the evidence of the implementation of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan was clear for all to see.
He also called for the leader of the PNCR to make a comprehensive statement on the missing guns from the 1970s.
The Minister read out a list of criminals who have either been slain by the security forces over the years or have been apprehended. Names standing out include the 2002 Mash Day escapees – Dale Moore, Shawn Brown, Mark Fraser, Andrew Douglas and Troy Dick – and many others, including the infamous Inspector Gadget. As he called each name, the Minister indicated whether the person had been killed by security forces or apprehended and charged. The minister, who was reading from a prepared speech, inadvertently said that five men who are wanted by the police had been arrested and charged. The men have not been held and Rohee’s statement was later corrected by the Government Information Agency.
As the Minister read his list, members of the Opposition, heckling, called out the names of Roger Khan and Gopaul Chowtie.
Rohee said that the recent criminal acts perpetrated in Lusignan and Bartica are political and that they differ from crimes of necessity such as larceny from the person.
He posited that the spate of crime now being witnessed shows that it is possible that youths can be influenced by political operatives. He said too that they can also be forcibly recruited to take up arms. Rohee said that Government has been making efforts to implement the plan and that strides have been made and spoke of the many conventions and agreements on crime fighting and security that Guyana has signed on to under the PPP/C’s watch.
He posited that every nation has faced one challenge or another and that “we must not run away from the challenges, we must confront them as a nation.”
When heckled that he should resign from his post for the failings in the security sector, the Minister said, “I ain’t Gajraj! Y’all ain’t gon force me out!” He was referring to former Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj.
Reacting to the statements by Minister Rohee, PNCR-1G member Aubrey Norton said that killing of criminals may not be the answer to the issue of violent crime. “We need an approach that would allow people to obtain jobs,” he said. Norton reminded that the Government has said that a SWAT team would have been put in place to respond quickly to violent crime. “In 2008, a SWAT squad is [not in place],” he said. Harking back to 1992, Norton said that in that year, the PPP/C Government inherited a country in which drug trafficking was not an issue worthy of report by US authorities. He made mention of the scathing assessment that the recent US drug report had made of Guyana.
“I urge the Government to address security in its foreign policy,” he said pointing out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been given a paltry sum of $2.4 billion dollars for the year.
Referring to the climate change battle, Norton mentioned that while the offer by President Bharrat Jagdeo to make most of Guyana’s forests available is a good one, there should have been some knowledge sharing at the local level among stakeholders. He said that there is a need for a proper environmental diplomatic strategy to promote Guyana’s interest with respect to climate change, forestry and biodiversity.
He added that with the impending problems that climate change will bring, policy has to shift towards moving to higher ground in the construction of habitats.
Norton said that Guyana needs a plan for the hinterland and highland roads and said that the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, built by the PNC administration, should be rehabilitated under broader plans for the bridging of Guyana, Brazil and other nations in South America. He said that while there was some mention of the Linden to Lethem road in the National Budget, there has been nothing said about the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
In response to the statements by Norton, Minister of Education Shaik Baksh said that moving inland is a long term consideration that wouldn’t be included in a one-year budget. “We don’t have the resources to shift inland,” Baksh said. (Johann Earle)
