It goes without saying that there is a need for the government and the Joint Services to be supported across the board as they try to deal with the crisis brutally carved by the fusillade of the Lusignan killers.
Crises have a way, however, of starkly exposing the weaknesses, failures and insensitivities of those in charge when otherwise they might be able to bluster or strong-arm their way through. The missteps of the government and the security forces have exposed what seems either a genuine inability or plain callousness.
The clearing of the backlands is perfect example. Considering the deeply ingrained fear that the Lusignan massacre has wrought in every village, hamlet and home on the lower East Coast and the fact that gunmen have used the area as cover, the clearing of the backlands is an initiative that should be supported. It wouldn’t have had to come to this, however, if over his lengthy tenure President Jagdeo had taken concrete and effective measures against all the crime cartels that have preyed on the East Coast, the city and elsewhere. But that is another matter. Whether the clear cutting of this zone can be sustained is also another issue which will test an administration often found wanting in keeping its promises and maintaining what it has started. But that it is also another matter.
What rankled the most was the way the administration and the security forces launched this exercise. When the subject had been broached with him on January 27 by shocked residents of the East Coast, President Jagdeo took the easy way out by arguing that when his administration had moved to begin clearing the backlands PNCR Leader Mr Corbin had objected because of his concern for farmers in the area. Mr Jagdeo was then duly and properly reminded by a resident that he was the President, not Mr Corbin; meaning that he had to make the tough decisions.
So perhaps on reflection, the President decided that he would make the decision in favour of clearing the backlands. From that point onwards the implementation was a medley of slips and missteps. Three bulldozers materialized in the community and began rolling through the backlands, mowing down farms to the consternation of those who farm in the area.
Would it have really compromised the operation to capture the Lusignan killers if the government and Joint Services had given two or three days notice to farmers to reap, secure and identify their produce prior to the start of bulldozing? What tactical gain was accrued as a result of this surprise manoeuvre except for further animosity and bitterness from the people of Buxton whose cooperation the Joint Services needs desperately? The fruits of this action were witnessed at the stormy meeting on Thursday with Agriculture Minister Mr Robert Persaud when the farmers vociferously rejected the suggestion that the Joint Services accompany them to their fields to harvest their produce. Don’t the authorities realize that farmers in the company of the Joint Services would create dangers for these people as long as gunmen continue to roam the backlands? And why should they labour under a mode akin to occupation?
The line of sight that Dr Luncheon said the clearing exercise is to achieve has thus far been crippled by short-sightedness and blunders. None more so than the invitation extended to Buxton farmers to visit the Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) in relation to compensation.
First, it is unconscionable to expect that these farmers should journey all the way to Eve Leary, moreso to the headquarters of an institution with which its community has had an extremely rocky and volatile relationship. The fact that no one turned up at Eve Leary after the announcement was the starkest evidence that the decision was a most discourteous and wrong-headed one. Second, why should compensation claims be handled by the PRO’s office. What skills might this office have in deciphering the value of a couple of beds of eschallot or the longevity of coconut trees? This was a task better suited to a multidisciplinary team comprising the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Human Services, Lands and Surveys Commission, local government authorities etc. The argument that the police would be the best intermediaries for this because they were in direct contact with the farmers is absolute nonsense. The subsequent decision to move this exercise to the Vigilance Police Station will not improve it one iota. It will worsen it.
What the PRO debacle glaringly revealed is the deepening and widening fissure between central and local government and the patent disregard for the latter by the former. This was also evident at the meeting that Minister Persaud convened with the farmers at Buxton. Even if it was the Minister who had summoned the meeting, it would not have hurt at all for the Region Four Chairman, Mr Corlette to be accorded the courtesy of opening the meeting and introducing Mr Persaud. This was not done and Mr Corlette was clearly furious at this snub smack in the middle of his constituency. The delicate balance and relationship between the ruling PPP/C and the PNCR-1G on the Region Four council has now been jolted by this slight. The Buxton meeting would have been the perfect opportunity for the PPP/C and the PNCR-1G to show that their cooperation on the Region Four council wasn’t just a gimmick or political convenience. A glorious opportunity was frittered away.
But what was even more instructive was that in determining compensation for the farmers who would be affected by the clearing, the government failed to devolve this responsibility fully to the local government organs: the Region Four RDC, the NDC and the village elders. That is the remit of local government; to be the proximate interface with residents at junctures like these. Who best to know the legitimate farmers and the extent of their cultivations than the NDC and the village elders? Could the police do a better job? Impossible.
One might go as far as saying that if the Ministry of Agriculture’s extension apparatus was as endowed as it should be those officers might have a far better idea of who the legitimate farmers in the backlands were. Local government, however, should have been more deeply involved. The government should have called in the regional chairman and the NDC chairpersons along the East Coast and entrusted them with the mandate to oversee the compensation process.
Instead the government tried the classic bureaucratic overreach and the meeting disintegrated over a remark by the President which ironically would not have interested a discussion at the local government level. Local government in this case was truly relegated to twelfth man so that the government could claim the credit for compensation.
The Lusignan massacre and its aftermath have to be handled sensitively and carefully because of the intense anger and ethnic insecurities that can get out of hand. The government has to be well attuned to this and conduct itself accordingly while making the best of opportunities to unite instead of divide.
The almost endless chatter on TV from the administration’s ministers about the PNCR and its stance on Buxton is counter-productive and clearly aimed at diverting attention from the government’s failure to successfully tackle the crime problem.
