Granger’s idea of a judicial inquiry into the drug trade should be given consideration

Dear Editor,

David Granger calls for a judicial inquiry into all aspects of the drug trade. Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, says no. Mr Rohee called on Mr Granger to probe many other areas including the killing of Walter Rodney and the 1973 ballot box incident. Mr Rohee is correct that we do need all of these probes to be conducted, but he seems to forget that we are living in the present. That the drug trade is a scourge of the present. That the scourge has become a monstrosity in the last 18 years of PPP rule, a period when Mr Rohee was always a high-ranking member of the government.  That the drug trade has spawned terror, violence, intimidation and crime in incredible ways.

Minister Rohee’s portfolio as Minister of Home Affairs covers law enforcement. The last time I checked, the drug trade is illegal. Thus, Minister Rohee’s portfolio covers the combating and eradication of the drug trade. So, for Clement Rohee, Minister of Home Affairs, to say no to an inquiry of the drug trade raises serious questions. At a minimum, the drug cartels must be happy with his statement. The security of the people of this country is paramount. With the failure of the PPP to even minimally stem the tide of the drug trade and its devastating consequences, I think Mr Granger’s idea should be given consideration, if nothing else for the sake of having an independent panel review the problem, standing apart from familiar government and opposition rhetoric. Finally, to make such a blanket statement of denial of an inquiry can only embolden the drug cartels’ belief in their own untouchability and invincibility. Finally, what is stopping the PPP as the sitting party in government from launching an inquiry into the 1973 ballot box incident?
Is it the same thing that has stopped them in some 18 years from launching a Walter Rodney inquiry?

Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell