Recently, Assistant Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine performed the duties of substantive Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud who had proceeded on several months leave.
It was an eventful period for Ramnarine, who faced the press during this period to report that 30 members of the Guyana Police Force had been dismissed or transferred to other locations, for matters ranging from armed robbery and wounding, to corrupt transactions and simple larceny.
Over at the Guyana Defence Force, newly appointed Chief of Staff, Brigadier General George Lewis in his address to military officers warned against indiscipline in all its forms, citing traffic offences and spousal abuse by ranks among other things.
That the issue of indiscipline within our Disciplined Services has reached distressing proportions is a fact which we all are well aware of. Reports of several members of the rank and file of the Disciplined Services being involved, at various levels, in violent crime have been occurring over the years. Reports of several officers and non-commissioned officers being involved in questionable and unprofessional conduct have also occurred from time to time.
It must fall under the remit of the Commissioner of Police and the Chief of Staff to seek to urgently correct such deviant behaviour and to return the Disciplined Services to disciplined behaviour with as much dispatch as they can muster. However, they themselves must be held to the same, if not a higher standard of discipline, as those for whose actions they hold responsibility.
In this vein, the now public spat between returning Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud and his Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine marks a level of indiscipline no organisation wants to have. Disagreement among senior functionaries is to be expected, and may be even necessary in certain contexts, but for the fight to take place in the public eye, results in a terrible loss of confidence in the warring parties, both within the rank and file of the GPF as well as the watchful public whose disaffection with the operations of the GPF continues to be pushed beyond normal limits.
It is against this backdrop that we are forced to contextualise the comments made by President Granger on his weekly televised programme ‘The Public Interest’ wherein he asks the public to “be patient” with the efforts by the GPF to arrest violent crime, while also seeking to temper the expectations of the public regarding the prosecution of “white collar” criminals. The President also referred to the reduction of guns, legal and illegal, currently in the hands of private citizens, with a stated preference for guns only being in the hands of the army and the police.
The President’s careful and cerebral delivery referencing organisational and structural changes being pursued in the GPF and the much vaunted British assistance under the Security Sector Reform Programme, notwithstanding, the President’s response can hardly be seen as one that will cause criminals whether of the white or blue collar variety to consider a curtailment of their nefarious activities and heinous schemes. When the current spat with the top brass of the GPF is factored in, and with the subject Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, referring the matter to the Attorney General, the question arises as to whether the public will indeed show either patience or confidence in what seems to be a fractured organisation, tasked with the critical responsibility of protecting the society from all forms of criminal attack.
Regarding the nature of the spat, Mr Ramnarine, while acting as COP for a period of just under five months, announced the promotion of several ranks. However, on his resumption of duty last week, Commissioner Seelall indicated he would have the decisions overturned citing a lack of authority on Ramnarine’s part to make such decisions.
It’s certainly reasonable to expect that the leadership of the force will disagree on matters from time to time, but one might have thought that the internal rules and regulations of such organisations should determine the procedure for the regularisation or reversal of the decisions taken by the Acting Commissioner. The hapless ranks who have been promoted and now face demotion may be sorely affected in terms of their own confidence in the management structure of the GPF, as may indeed be all rank and file members. Confidence in the authority of Seelall and Ramnarine may suffer as a result and it is difficult to see a win-win outcome from this debacle.
Fragmented leadership within local law enforcement weakens any strategy being implemented by this government and more importantly, it points to a broader issue of deep-seated problems within the beleaguered force including its management and strategic direction, or lack thereof.
The internal wrangling in the force, which often finds its way into the newspapers on occasions, continues to undermine the ability of law enforcement to effectively implement any crime fighting strategy and it erodes public confidence in the force to work together in the interest of the citizenry.
The Guyana Police Force particularly, but the Disciplined Services as a whole, needs steady leadership and trained management if they are to stop the steady and unrelenting decline in discipline, standards, respect for authority and such attributes that should form the foundation and guiding principles of such organisations.
Tremendous challenges lie ahead for the men and women in the Disciplined Services and its leaders must lead by example and motivate and reward good behaviour and certainly, but not only punish errant behaviour.
The still impending SSRP must not be seen as a panacea that will immediately remedy everything wrong in the GPF, particularly as basic leadership and management techniques, if employed, will begin the turnaround in discipline needed by the Disciplined Services and be a foundation on which real reform and positive enduring change can be built.
