Political space
Editorial
Stabroek News
April 27, 2003
After blaming the GDF and the police force for failed tactics in dealing with the crime situation along the lower East Coast, President Jagdeo now says that he needs some political space in order to deal with the problem of Buxton. The thinking public had already suspected a long time ago that what was really inhibiting the Government from tackling the epicentre of crime in a meaningful way was political cold feet, and that the griping at the army and police was just a somewhat forlorn, if not a dishonourable attempt to deflect responsibility for the administration's failure of will.
If it really were the case that the army and the police were not carrying out the President's orders, then the Commander-in-Chief would have a much more serious problem on his hands than criminals in Buxton. But while one suspects that his extraordinary outbursts may reflect a measure of tension between him and the military in particular, all the evidence suggests that the relative ineffectualness of the security forces in the current situation, quite simply has its origin in the fact that as yet, he hasn't created the kind of framework, or given the kind of orders which would have any hope of eventuating in the apprehension of the gunmen.
Well, if political space is what the President has been waiting for all along in order to act, it might even be that he has got what he wanted - or at least as much as he can reasonably expect to get. At their press conference last week the PNCR described Buxton as a haven for criminals. Of course, they talked about how "reckless" policing and extra-judicial killings had "traumatized and radicalized an entire village" - a statement that is not without truth, although it in no way excuses the current criminal activity which is being directed from there. They also talked about identifying the root causes of crime, saying that there was no justification for only a policing response.
While it is quite true that "social and economic decay" provide a breeding ground for criminals, and that the underlying "causal factors" of crime need to be addressed, it has to be understood that this cannot happen in a village like Buxton until the gunmen first have been apprehended. The PNCR has an agricultural project underway for the community. That is very commendable. But let us be realistic; how many teenagers there who watch some of their peers exercising power through the barrel of an AK-47, will be able to resist the pressures of joining the fraternity in order to pursue a life of farming? Or even of sitting in a classroom slogging away to upgrade educational qualifications in order to become more employable in the conventional economy? And for those who possessed the inner strength to resist temptation, what would they do if they were ordered to join the gang, or under threat were instructed to commit some act which hurt their consciences?
The larger community values of Buxton/ Friendship have been turned upside down by the criminals; the virtues of work, education and just reward which one presumes the PNCR would like to promote in its projects will have no purchase there as long as the gunmen are setting the rules. So chronologically speaking, there has to be some form of 'policing' operation in the village first before anything positive can be seriously undertaken, and bear fruit. Exactly who carries out that 'policing' operation, and how it is done, is for the Commander-in-Chief on advice from those state agencies with expertise in the field to decide.
Even if the administration has not noticed, almost everything is at a standstill in this country, while we wait on it to talk itself into doing something effective about the crime situation. Buxton is only stage one in the crime fight, of course; the more complex issue of the larger narcotics trade will also have to be confronted thereafter, before we become a major transit route for the export of drugs, courtesy of the Georgetown- Brazil road, with all that that implies.
But now that the President has expressed (in an oblique way) the Government's deepest fears in relation to the Buxton situation, and the main Opposition party has acknowledged (in a less oblique way) that one of its strongholds is providing sanctuary for criminals, at least we have some tentative level - however limited - of common understanding. With this, the Government has now run out of excuses for procrastinating any longer.
