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I extend my best in that he may do better to Superintendent Krishna Ramana in his new role as commander of Region One. With a first name that soars to the spiritual mountaintops, much is vested in the new commander, especially given what he is inheriting. Senior Superintendent could be forced on him by virtue of circumstances and dint of the kind of devotion to duty, true policing duty, that that region and this country need. To his predecessor, I would be a lesser man if I did not say, please do some deep introspection, develop some learning, and make the adjustments that new circumstances necessitate.
On the other hand, what do I say to the honorable Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Robeson Benn, the no less honorable Commissioner of Police (ag), Mr. Clifton Hicken, and the most honorable in all Guyana, His Excellency President Irfaan Ali? Rather strangely, I find myself in that rarest of rare positions: stumped and slumped. By my simple standard of thinking, admittedly not the most sought after nor the most appreciated, the interests of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Government, and the Guyanese people are not best served.
Not when there are these developments that are spawned in the dark, laced with layers of thicker darkness, and leave all Guyana stumbling around and wondering why there is this utter darkness. Why is any of this necessary, Mr. Commissioner, Mr. Minister, Mr. President? I ask with cap in hand, and with the subdued body language of a peasant who knows his place. But I must hasten to state, one who also knows that things don’t add up, with too many gaps left, for when the string of events and their sequence are considered, there is so much left hanging.
There is a big bust, one man is busted, and another one (a senior police officer) is bustled away into the oblivion of spare parts and spare wheels. In more ways than one that action is a bust, too. Is that permanent or is that meant to be temporary until the sharp gaze of the microscope becomes clouded due to the passage of time, and people moving on? In other words, will the former commander be resurrected in due season, given a new lease on life? The Top Cop (ag) first said that he didn’t know, other than what the media reported. The president and the minister, both men of honorable character I remind one and all, spoke brightly and highly about the Joint Services and CANU, with nary a word about the Guyana Police Force.
Or its glaring absence in something of this stupendous cast. Clamping on my best deferential hat, but without relinquishing one iota of my essence, I am prompted to say that, with the circumstances duly considered, the Top Cop is not the only one pushed into an acting role, nor is he the only one exhibiting the ponderous skills usually associated with ham-handed acting. Whether President Ali and Minister Benn were acting up or acting out in the adrenaline rush of the moment, I am not qualified to say. But a few things I do know, and it is best that they be shared so all could ponder with an eye to being better.
The Guyana Police can be shielded, but for how much longer, and to what goal? These cardboard setups, these shuffleboard arrangements, these Ouija board visions coming out of the Guyana Police Force are not to the benefit of citizens. Nor do they contribute to any governmental and organizational drive towards an unsullied law-abiding environment. And if I may be permitted to attach, one that is armed with the degree of inspiration that Guyanese so urgently need.
We (the president, the minister, the government) either come clean and come straight and true with where the Guyana Police Force is mired today, or we make laughing stocks of ourselves. Just to be clear, there is no me in the pronoun (we), as used on this troubling occasion. Too many top-ranking officers in the national law enforcement machinery have been fingered, operate under a shadow, for this to be accepted as a momentary institutional stumble. How can this be limited to a stumble, when an ongoing confluence of storms has deteriorated into the full tumbling of one uniformed, high-level tower after another?
Today I will say nothing about politicising of the Guyana Police. Nor will I say anything about the plugging of people into places where they fail on their duty or run helter-skelter to the detriment of their assigned neighborhood, and now the reputation of the nation. All I will say is that the president and the government owe a duty to the people of Guyana to present them with the best police apparatus possible. This has not been done. The quality of the personnel is of supreme importance, especially given the sticky mudflat on which the Guyana Police Force is beached like a trapped whale. This issue concerning senior personnel must be addressed honestly and efficiently and transparently.
On the issue of transparency, Excellency Ali has an opportunity to make good through what is done to remediate the Guyana Police Force. Neither he himself nor this thin blue/beige line that is the difference between anarchy and tranquility has been up to the task. Continuing in the same failed and rickety way would be detrimental. Changing with an eye to vital improvements in the Guyana Police could be instrumental in delivering what Guyanese need now. I pass the baton over to the president.
