Dear Editor,
I want to say that Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, Permanent Secretary Mae Thomas, Police Commissioner Nigel Hoppie, and other stakeholders handled well the incompetence and bewildering approach shown by the Guyana Fire Service to the fire which occurred at the Brickdam Police Station over the weekend.
All of them were assessing the damages and conducting meetings with the aim of rebuilding the Brickdam Police Station and ensuring the public is not inconvenienced while they are doing so. They have shown leadership in this dark moment in time, when the historic building went up in flames.
I am sure they are working feverishly to ensure that this will not subsume the Government and distract the Police Force’s attention from the arrest of crime in our society.
If anything, this fire, though deliberately set, will make the law enforcement stronger, and the Government will show what “leadership” means in times of uncertainty.
But I must comment on the response of the Fire Service. It was poor and unsatisfactory, to say the least. I agree with President Dr. Irfaan Ali when he said, “This is less than three minutes’ walk to a main fire station. We cannot continue as a country and as a people to not address these issues. We can’t continue to make investments and not have the return on the investments. Whether it is in the public service, in the hospitals, the inefficiency has to be weeded out. If you don’t want to perform public service, then do the honourable thing, don’t take a job in the fire department and believe it is a part-time job. Don’t take the Government’s assets, your safety gear, and leave it home and you are an emergency worker,”.
Yours truly,
Attiya Baksh
