Report on security strategy recommendations due in a month
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Report on security strategy recommendations due in a month
Task force to be set upBy Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
April 29, 2000
Within a month a report synthesising recommendations on a national security strategy will be compiled and a task force will be empanelled to oversee the work to be done.
This was one of the key undertakings that flowed from a landmark three-day seminar on formulating a security strategy.
Addressing the closing ceremony yesterday at the Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel, President Bharrat Jagdeo bemoaned the political divisiveness which bedevils the attempts to address the problems recognised as retarding the country's progress.
"We never had problems in identifying problems in Guyana, it is when we come to finding solutions to those issues that the biggest challenge is divisiveness," the President said. President Jagdeo said that this divisiveness found its way into the simplest of issues. He described Guyanese as being very innovative in allowing this consideration to come into play.
Looking at the summary of the recommendations from the seminar, the President said that he saw issues which had been spoken about ad nauseam, but the divisiveness at the political level prevented the implementation of measures to address them.
Inclusivity in politics, ethnic and racial security and the need to battle corruption, accountability, and efficiency in public administration were among such issues.
"When we try to tackle corruption and go against violent crime, politics again gets involved... we use politics to divide us on every single thing."
Not among the recommendations, but which President Jagdeo said should have been included, were respect for the rule of law and the role of the media. The media, he said, because of the scarcity of skills steered public debate towards sensational issues and away from the more serious and pressing problems facing the society.
These, he said, if not addressed would hinder solutions to the problems identified by the seminar. Another problem which he said was omitted was the allocation of resources which would have to be faced when the national security strategy was being formulated.
When he addressed the opening session, President Jagdeo had referred to the economic constraints which inhibited the allocation of resources to the army even though it was recognised as being under-capitalised and in need of retooling.
However, he praised the participation of the representatives from the various sections of the community and assured them that their work over the three days would not have been in vain.
President Jagdeo said that in advancing the formulation of the national security strategy, as many of them as could afford the time would be involved.
Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj, who chaired the seminar, said that within a month a report would be made available, following collation by a broad-based committee of the various recommendations emerging from the workshop sessions.
Addressing concerns about the next steps to be taken, Gajraj noted the recommendation for the establishment of a task force to oversee the work to be done and a parliamentary committee which would deal with aspects of a national security policy.
He noted the increasing inter-dependency among countries required to promote democracy, combat terrorism and suggested that Guyana's security objectives could only be realised if its strategy was forward-looking, and had national consensus. He stressed that the responsibility for formulating the national security strategy was that of the Guyanese people and that the seminar was a Guyanese initiative.
Also addressing the closing session was Dr Margaret Hayes, director of the Center for Hemispheric Defence Studies. In describing the facilitating role of the centre's staff at the seminar, she said that they were at their best when working for local organisations in helping the process to be developed.
And she said that the seminar, which she described as democracy in action, had allowed issues which seemed to be a concern to percolate and make their way to the front page.
The seminar was co-hosted by the Government of Guyana, the US embassy, the centre and the US Southern Command. The participants were drawn from the security services, the media, academia, the church and the private sector while the facilitators came from the University of Guyana and the center.
During yesterday's closing session, Dr Hayes was presented with a plaque by Gajraj and she in turn presented books to President Jagdeo and Gajraj, which she said were an incentive to get them to visit the centre. Professor Ivelaw Griffith, one of the visiting facilitators and himself a Guyanese, presented a set of books he had written or edited to President Jagdeo to help in getting the strategy formulation off the ground.
