Rohee or no Rohee, AFC and APNU will have to await a change in government to get their way in the security sector

Dear Editor,

D Backer has done it again. This time she has branded me a “nuts and bolts man.” She has gone so far as to accuse me of “micromanagement.”

These accusations are not new to ministers of the PPP/C administration. And so long as the PNC remains in the opposition so it will be.

The more PNC MPs open their loud mouths, the more I am convinced that Guyana will become a “paradise lost” if they are ever to regain the seat of power (sic?). We only have to cast our minds back to the 1964 to 1991 period to assess their track record in government. Will Granger and his acolytes do better? Hardly likely, just look at their behaviour with their one-seat majority in the National Assembly and make your own assessment. As a matter of fact, just look at how they run the Georgetown Municipality and ask yourself: if they can’t run a municipality how can they run a government?

The loud mouths in the PNC have convinced themselves that only they can administer our country’s security sector. That is why they are not approving a single bill that is laid in National Assembly to bring improvements to the security sector under the PPP/C administration. It is not about Clement Rohee, it is about the Manhattan-size ego of Granger and his ilk.

Having dug themselves into a hole they find it hard to extricate themselves from that very hole, less they bring shame onto themselves. Backer screams and shouts about “setting policies and dealing with the bigger issues”. How laughable! Do they really want to listen to policies and bigger issues with respect to the security sector? No way! Who do they think they are fooling?

As far as Granger and his merry band are concerned, only under the PNC will the security sector improve. They have all the answers! They know it all!

Regrettably, there is no one in the PPP/C who supports either the APNU or the AFC. So Rohee or no Rohee both the AFC and APNU will have to await a change in government to get their way in the security sector. Moreover, Rohee or no Rohee at the Ministry of Home Affairs, the PNC will never change its stripes. It has never found any PPP/C Minister of Home Affairs acceptable. In fact, the PNC has never found the PPP/C to be an acceptable government. And that’s the bottom line.

Instead of worrying over Rohee, Backer and her backers should pay attention to what Henry Jeffrey wrote in his “Future Notes” on June 19, 2013 where he said: “…APNU… has not been able to transmit an acceptable vision of the future, and its political antics have left many confused….”

With all their loud mouth and bad mouthing, the PNC has never told the nation what its vision for the security sector is.  But the question is, do they have one?
Moreover, the Stabroek News in its Editorial of Sunday, June 23, 2012 had this to say about Backer’s party: “Although now in opposition for two decades, the PNC has failed to take the opportunity to rejuvenate itself or move to more secure ethical ground with an acknowledgement, at least, of its fraudulent past…”

I would therefore recommend to D Backer instead of getting hot and bothered about me that she along with her acolytes go rejuvenate and cleanse themselves of their unethical, corrupt and vote-thieving past or be condemned to the rubbish bin of history which according to Mr V Alexander will happen because “the political leadership does not seem to be listening enough.”

Oh! And about that “bolts and nuts” gaffe, D Backer may want to ponder on this: “She’s (not Backer) got a lot of good general ideas…the basics, but when it comes to the bolts and nuts of getting something done she is no good!!”

Yours faithfully,
Clement Rohee
Minister of Home Affairs