“There is no, I insist, no breakdown of law and order in Guyana,” Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee declared yesterday as parliamentarians wrapped up their submissions on the 2011 national budget ahead of the consideration of the Estimates, which begins today.
Rohee was at the time responding to several charges levelled by opposition MPs last week about the state of public security locally. The minister dealt primarily with those originating from PNCR-1G Shadow Minister of Home Affairs Debbie Backer and singled out three of the claims. According to Rohee, the first was that the PPP/C administration was responsible for the breakdown in law and order; that the political directorate was micro-managing the security forces; and that the administration was unreceptive to constructive recommendations emanating from outside of Freedom House or the Office of the President.
“There is no break down of law and order in Guyana. If you want to talk about breakdown in law and order, then you have to look at Afghanistan, Somalia and Haiti, to some extent, or the Mexican city of Tijuana. To say that there’s a breakdown of law and order in Guyana is an over exaggeration and an attempt to play to the orchestra to catch the attention of the media.
He said there was no sign of the collapse of public safety and called for evidence to show that Guyana was going through “the worse criminal era in our country’s history” as claimed by PNCR-1G Shadow Minister of Finance Volda Lawrence. He also challenged the claims that investors find the crime situation “appalling” and that the country was near a “point of crisis” as posited by AFC MPs Khemraj Ramjattan and Raphael Trotman, respectively.
“Mr. Speaker, how can we make these absurd claims in a situation where the economic activities in the country show no signs of slowing down; and where 946 new companies registered in 2010; when the construction industry is booming; and when the overall economic growth rate is 4% over the past four years?”
Further, he stated, tourist arrivals were going up; the local private sector was investing; people were going about their business and daily lives in a routine manner; shops and stores open their doors to customers every day; and schools were functioning normally with high attendance of both pupils and teachers.
“Essential services are functioning normally without any interruption save for a few technical hitches here and there; eight, there is no capital flight from the country nor is there any run on the banks; nine, last but not least Mr. Speaker, night life is robust and quite extensive,” Rohee declared to applause from the government benches.
These, he said, were all signs that the security of the state was not threatened and that law and order is being kept at an “optimal level” by the law enforcement agencies. The minister challenged the opposition MPs to provide “scientific indicators” to back up their assertions.
“There is no, I insist, no breakdown of law and order in Guyana. I am not saying that because I’m the Minister of Home Affairs, I’m saying that because like you and like everyone over here we live in this country and we can walk about this country, we can work, we can have fun, we can have leisure, we can do all we want to do in this country without looking over our shoulders as we used to do prior to 1992.”
Turning to the claim of political direction of the security sector, Rohee said the assertion was based on hearsay and anecdotal statements made by some “who are either disloyal to the organisation to which they belong or loyal to those who have a vested interest in the ethnic appeal of kith and kin.”
“To claim that the political directorate is micro-managing the security forces is to insult the intelligence of the security forces and to make them believe that they themselves cannot think for themselves. It is a shame to know that we have people in our midst who seek to heap scorn and sow disaffection within the joint services of our country when they should be singing the praises to these heroic sons and daughters….”
He stated that the “unswerving and unstinted support” of the opposition was needed by the joint services and called on them to so deliver.
Meanwhile, on the administration’s alleged reluctance to take advice originating outside the PPP, Rohee said this demonstrated a lack of understanding of the way the government and the ruling party works. Participatory democracy, he said, was a work in progress and was being manifested every day in Guyana.
“Meetings between the president and stakeholders from every walk of social, economic and political life take place on a daily basis; meetings between ministers and the people take place on a daily basis; every single day you have… sometimes five ministers of government in the field meeting people to discuss and solve problems of concern to them.”
Rohee had earlier indicated that his ministry intends to spend its entire $15.9B allocation, while arguing that the investments in the sector over the years had paid off. “I say to those who say that we have not allocated sufficiently, don’t allocate the money, don’t spend it and let us see what will happen. Mr. Speaker, we do not deny the fact that there is room for improvement and there always will be room for improvement but we must say that at the same time let us recognise where progress has been made….”
Rohee also argued that investments in the health and education sectors and infrastructural development will bring benefit for public security.
