Up until several weeks ago, it has been rare for the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to come into the national spotlight as it did and continues to do, up to this time. Matters pertaining to the country’s protection of that which lies within its boundaries are, to a large extent issues of what we term national security. What this means is that institutions that are concerned with national security, including the military, possess a considerable measure of latitude to utilize different judgement criteria in determining the extent to which its pursuits are placed in the public domain. The concept of ‘national security’ can embrace a wide swathe of considerations and here the military is usually inclined to claim and, invariably, strenuously exercise that prerogative.
Setting aside the broad understanding that the role of the military, in a holistic sense, is, essentially, to defend the territorial integrity of the country, its particular undertakings in pursuit of the exercise of that obligation are usually, not, on a day-to-day basis, as widely known as those of other state-run institutions. The military’s national profile derives almost exclusively from a broad undertaking that the defence of the country’s territorial integrity is its primary function. That said, the point should also be made that the status of the military amongst the domestic population is nowhere near as exalted as that which obtains in several other countries in the hemisphere whose historical experiences of national armies (in more ways than one) are altogether different to ours.
The expression ‘The People’s Army’ is, one feels, intended to conjure up the image of a national institution that goes beyond a strictly military role, extending into various other areas of broader national effort, many of which embrace other aspects of national development. Here the point should be made that much credit should be given to the Guyana Defence Force for the role which it plays is connecting the hinterland to the coast in ways which, all too frequently have no military connotation whatsoever.
Not only does the GDF undertake routine aspects of movement in and out of the country’s vast interior, it represents one of the most reliable means through which critical governance-related decisions are made and effectively implemented in relation to the well-being of the country’s hinterland communities. Context-ually, the military also, crucially, provides timely information on matters relating to the sanctity of our borders.
For two reasons which, by now, are widely known to the populace, as a whole, the GDF has come to public attention on matters which have recently brought it into even more significant mainstream prominence. The first, in terms of its particular responsibilities arising out of the recent sabre-rattling emanating from the Maduro administration in Venezuela; the second derives from the recent helicopter tragedy that took the lives of five of the seven occupants two Wednesdays ago. The majority of the victims were serving or retired senior officers.
The fact that this loss to the Guyana Defence Force coincided with the ‘noises’ that were being made by our neighbour to the west lent the helicopter tragedy an even greater significance and, perhaps understandably, gave rise to a vigorous spurt of speculation as to just what had been the cause of the tragedy. It transpires, however, that what the helicopter tragedy really does is to symbolize, in the harshest possible terms, the weighty responsibility that lies on the shoulders of the People’s Army.
But the recent uptick of unpleasant media attention that has been visited upon the GDF does not end there. Few if any local media reports could have been, contextually, more pleasing than the disclosure in the December 14 issue of the Stabroek News that the two suspects who had set upon and severely assaulted a uniformed rank of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) had been apprehended in neighbouring Suriname.
That the images of the occurrence had been disseminated to what one assumes was a significant swathe of the population coincided with Venezuela’s most recent challenge to our territorial integrity must surely have been considerably disturbing to patriotic Guyanese. Here, amidst tough talk from Caracas about its absurd territorial claim was a visual image of a uniformed Guyana Defence Force rank being viciously brutalized by ordinary thugs.
Setting aside the injury to the soldier the poignancy of the occurrence, its timing and what, apparently, was the widespread screening of the video ‘offering’ this horrendous spectacle must, surely, be taken account of, in the legal handling of the matter. If this is done with all of the assertiveness that the state can muster, the outcome of the occurrence may well serve as a powerful gesture of reassurance to ‘The People’s Army’ that the services that it continues to afford our country counts.
We need to go beyond that. Surely, recent events that have caused the Army to come into the public spotlight must now cause us to pay far more attention to the role that the military has to play in the much broader development on our country. This, in the context of the wider envisaged socio-economic trajectory ought to reflect itself in the extent of the resources that we invest in the significant enhancement of the capacity of the Guyana Defence Force to perform its duties, not least of which is the protection of our territorial integrity.
Surely, now, this issue ought to brought to the very forefront of our national agenda and be allowed to remain there.
