Encouraging lawlessness

Insubordination

The David Ramnarine flap is not as inconsequential as some may think. In a new democracy such as ours, situated as we are in the Third World, and more specifically in the bosom of Latin America, we cannot be oblivious to the need for disciplined forces to accept they are subordinate to the civilian authorities.

This is a lesson that the opposition and its cheerleaders in the media seem determined to evade.

The lines are drawn very clearly. The civilian authorities must not get involved with direct operational matters, but just as starkly, the disciplined forces must not get involved with policy formulation. That’s a matter for the civilian authorities. Just as importantly once a policy is articulated, the members of the disciplined forces can only question them in the stipulated manner and cannot whimsically flout such policies.

The bottom line is that “theirs is not to reason why”. A member of the disciplined forces disagreeing fundamentally with any policy always has the option of resigning. That’s why they’re called “disciplined forces” and not ‘do as you please’ forces. In the instant case, Ramnarine deliberately broke the rule governing communications by members of the police force. This was not an innocuous slip of the tongue, but taking the time to actually write a letter to the press.

Secondly, even if some wanted to invoke a moral rule, Ramnarine lied about not receiving any funds and his language was deliberately confrontational. It appears that the auditor general has found that the entire Gy$ 90 million has been accounted for. If Ramnarine had utilised the channels open to him, the GPF and the country would have been spared much embarrassment.

Back in 1951, U. S. President Truman confronted a similar situation. The most popular general in the U. S. army, MacArthur – in the midst of the Korean War – made belittling remarks about the president. Mac Arthur was relieved of his post and history views the incident as a seminal one defining civilian-armed forces relations in a democracy. The civilian authority cannot be undermined. Ramnarine, like MacArthur, deserves to be disciplined. We note that this is his second instance demanding such action.

Ramnarine is fortunate that he is still retained in the GPF. He still has time to cogitate on and understand the rules governing civilian control of our disciplined forces.

Mischief

Once again we have to refer to this newspaper’s call for a regulatory body to oversee the functioning of the media in our country. In an article purporting to be a ‘news item’, “Ramnarine stripped of Commander post” the MuckrakerKN claimed that Ramnaraine had been “banished” following his “outspokenness” in a “spat with Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee”. It was slantingly stated that Rohee “accused” Ramnarine of violating a GPF standing order – implying that this was just a ruse by Rohee rather than an actual breach by Ramnarine. Rohee had clearly stated the pertinent order at the time.

The MuckrakerKN then went on: “The assistant commissioner had publicly declared that he had received no money from the Guyana Police Force to feed the ranks in the Interior Division, who were under his command during the elections period.” It ‘forgot’ to mention that Ramnarine later admitted he had received a cheque for Gy$ 320,000! Talk about biased reporting! The entire report was a piece of slanted reporting that is the default setting for the MuckrakerKN. It was designed – as all their reports are – to place the administration in a bad light. We hope the authorities and all right-thinking citizens are taking note of these wankers.

The Muckraker really outdid itself in the last couple of weeks in its vendetta against Jagdeo and the owner of this newspaper. Taking some unrelated facts, it mixed them with some outright lies and came up with a ‘teaser’ advertisement run! Then it reported the advertisement as news!! Manufactured “news”! Media regulation anyone??