The Vice-Chairman of Region Six was yesterday accused by a resident of the crime-hit No 19 Village, Corentyne of breaching a promise on street lights and this prompted Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee to say that unfulfilled promises by officials give government a bad name.
Rohee was responding to a resident’s complaint during a meeting with residents of Number 19 Village, Coren-tyne at the Bohemia Primary School yesterday. Deputy Commander of ‘B’ Division, Eric Bassant, Region 6 Chairman, David Armogan, and Member of Parliament, Faizal Jaffarally as well as several other officials accompanied the minister. Three main issues raised were the need for streetlights, landline telephones and firearms.
Residents complained of crime rates. Villages that run along the Number 19 Public Road have seen increasing levels of crime in the past few months including armed robberies. A few weeks ago, armed bandits fired shots wildly in the air injuring several persons who had to be hospitalised. The bandits robbed and terrorised a grocery shop owner and his family before escaping. The residents of Number 19 and other villages do not have line telephones and several calls were made for the installation of line telephones and streetlights along the roadway.
The residents said that a previous meeting with law enforcement and regional officials held a month ago was not fruitful. One woman said that officials present at the first meeting made promises of streetlights and telephones, among others but to date nothing has materialised. The woman said that the residents are being misled and fooled by the authorities.
Rohee then asked the woman to identify the officials who were at that meeting and made the promises and the woman identified Regional Vice- Chairman, Bhopaul Jhagroo who was present.
“It’s a bagful of promises by your workers, by the government workers, you might be straight-up telling me your word, but do you think everybody stands to their words like you do? They always promising us something, it don’t work that way”, the resident told Rohee. Rohee responded by saying that the government should not be held accountable for promises made by regional officials. “You’re there giving me your word of your position and what you are capable of…and I understand that clearly, you would not take something you are not responsible for, do the others make themselves clear like you,” the resident asked and Rohee responded that they should.
Bad name
Rohee said that these promises being made by government officials give the government a bad name “and to get somebody to be walking around and making promises giving my government a bad name…I want to know who they are, so I can catch them by their collars and deal with them.”
Jhagroo then sought to defend himself. “Minister, I would not promise something that was impossible,” he said. Under questioning by Rohee, he said that he had promised to look into the issue of streetlights and had done so “to a point”.
“I made contact with GPL – the residents were asking if streetlights could be put on the road, so I said I will make some representation but I did not promise a ‘yes’… but we are in the process of making representation,” he said. Rohee then questioned the Vice – Chairman on what action he took and he responded: “to this point, I have not made any action.” Rohee scolded Jhagroo and said that he should have told the people clearly “what are your parameters of responsibility.”
Region Six Chairman, David Armogan in explaining why there were no streetlights on the Number 19 roadway said that there is no funding and that only new roads funded by the Inter-American Development Bank include provisions for street lights. He said that when the Number 19 Roadway was rebuilt a few years ago, the contract did not include streetlights. “That matter is now engaging Minister (Robeson) Benn and he is looking at it but I can’t promise you anything…and Minister Benn has not promised anything and as soon as we have word on that we will let you know,” he said.
Armogan also said that it is a matter of sustainability, and pointed out that a number of streetlights in the Canje and Crabwood Creek areas are not working “and nobody will replace them because IDB funding will not come back to replace them and GPL will not replace them… that is not their responsibility.”
Comfort
Rohee commented that while lights give people a sense of comfort “they could see the thiefman…they do not stop crime.” He said that many communities including Georgetown have many lights but criminals still operate. “I am not saying that because the criminals are operating, do not put lights. I am saying put the lights but don’t believe the lights will be the salvation,” he said while urging the residents to help fight crime by organising themselves into Community Policing Groups. He pledged the support of his ministry to those groups if and when they are formed.
Rohee blamed poor communication for the outcome of the first meeting. “We have to have new mechanisms to get back to the people to let them know what happened, if any action was taken… what came out of the action… maybe we were at fault, that we had a meeting and several matters were raised and once you told people you will look into it, they expect something from you,” he said.
The minister said that public officials, especially ministers, should inform the people with whom they are meeting of the areas that they are responsible for even as he noted that residents were raising issues out of his jurisdiction as Minister of Home Affairs. He promised however, that he will write those issues down and raise them with the subject minister when they meet for cabinet.
One resident, Dennis Baker, a cane harvester and fish and livestock farmer at Number One road complained that he applied for a firearm since 2003 and to date “there has been no reply.” He visited Eve Leary last August “to find out and them tell me that all my files are there and I have to wait,” he said. Rohee told Baker that he would meet with him privately after the meeting to discuss the matter. Speaking about the need to balance rights and responsibilities, Rohee said, in Guyana “if I were to make a check of the people who want firearms, the statistics wouldn’t be too nice.”
