Dear Editor,
When they were in the Opposition, the PNC and AFC were good back seat drivers. They had all the solutions to the crime problem and good governance.
From the time they got into Government, they have been complete failures. One of their own, now National Hero, MP Mr Charrandas Persaud, who could not take it any longer, voted with the Opposition against his own coalition Government, and caused the PNC to be defeated.
There was an expectation that the coalition would do better on crime given all the retired military people that Granger assembled to help his Government. People thought they would create a Think Tank, or action plan but nothing of the sort. We get more of the same backwardness, including law enforcement personnel working in cahoots with criminals.
Every week, from Berbice to Essequibo, to Linden and Georgetown, violent crime creates widows and orphans. Our hardworking mothers, daughters, sons and fathers are brutalised by bandits without mercy. The poor fishermen going out to provide us with fish do not return home. Businessmen taking risks to engage in enterprise and providing jobs are ambushed and killed in broad daylight, and the Government keeps twiddling its thumbs with no solutions in sight. Instead, they feed us propaganda that crime has reduced, even as families in mourning bury their loved ones whose lives have been cut short by bandits’ bullets. And Granger says: “Give us five more years.” Five more years to do what?
While the Government has done minor shuffles of its pack of jokers, Ramjattan is in place still. The current pack of Ministers in the coalition are probably the sorriest lot ever in Government. The PNC knows that while it needs to put in a new Minister, it cannot just move the AFC Leader just like that. So because of coalition politics, the nation continues to carry the goadie of incompetence of clueless Ministers, more widows and orphans are created, and fear stalks the land. Even church people are afraid to venture out at nights for Bible studies or prayer meetings. Guyanese abroad are scared to come home and visit.
Let Ramjattan say how many of the fishing boat owners in his county of Berbice have been issued firearms. Fishermen should not have to pay with their lives for us to be able to eat fish.
I call on Ramjattan to resign immediately, and for caretaker Granger to appoint a new caretaker Public Security Minister. Enough is enough!
Sincerely,
Jerry Singh