…with SOCU
After hemming and hawing for a year about the patent (and blatant) misnomer (let’s be kind, now!) about SOCU (Special Organised Crime Unit) being a part of the Police Force, the government now suggests (!!) that maybe the unit should be “independent and autonomous”! Jeez! How obvious can these guys be?
From the very beginning it’s been clear the government isn’t just interested in staffing the government with scads of military types. With at least ten high ranking officers – all the way to general – advising Pressie, they have to wear dark shades because of the glitter of all those brass medals!
The real goal is to MILITARISE the coercive operations of government – free of civilian control. So Immigration was hived off from the GPF and placed into the hands of ex-Commissioner of Police, Winston Felix. The same one who had a very interesting conversation with PNC’s Chairman, Basil Williams after the Agricola Massacre – when he was still the COP! And now he’s come out of the PNC’s closet, he has the power to determine who remains in Guyana or not.
Then we had SARU (State Asset Recovery Unit) that is now SARA; that was just transmuted into an autonomous “AGENCY”. And no one’s controlling it – with its Director, in fact, having the power to demand of all other heads of Security or the GRA or Banks, confidential information to use as he sees fit. No need to ask approval from a judicial officer! And not to mention insisting that contrary to what the CONSTITUTION mandates – sees its enabling legislation as operating ex post facto!
And now is SOCU – which might just mean “sock it to you!” – formed by the PPP to follow up on the AML/CFT legislation – to be untethered from the Police Force? Well the one operation it was involved in, the army commander gave instructions to one of HIS men in SOCU to monitor, intercept and interdict two civilians. And we still don’t if the army fella officially in command of SOCU knew anything! We KNOW the Minister didn’t.
Well with all this diminution of the remit of the Police Force, a fella might be excused for thinking the plan is to emasculate not only the official head of that body – the COP – , but more to the point, the civilian Minister of Public Security. Imagine a postage stamp sized country like Guyana – now having more than half a dozen agencies, forces, and units that have the authority to terminate any citizen of life, liberty and property.
Oh!! But the now resuscitated ideology of the Founder Leader did give us the highest military to civilian ratio in the world, nuh?
…on spending
“Money, money everywhere, but not a dollar to spend!” That’s the cry of so many groups of Guyanese when they heard that even though the government presented a budget, a record budget of $320Billion – earlier than anyone the PPP ever did – with two-thirds of the year has finished, they haven’t even spent half of it!
The business class has to be apoplectic – since they’d been screaming for a “stimulus” via government spending to get the economy back in its feet. The public servants have to be jumping up and down and screaming since they were told the government didn’t have money to pay them a living wage. Don’t even get them going by mentioning a “significant” raise!
And the excuse by the Finance Minister is one that should make the entire Guyanese citizenry snort in derision – that being early caught the agencies off guard and they couldn’t react in time!
This whopper’s almost – almost – reminiscent of the one about a warehouse being rented in case a fire guts the original one!
…against betrayal
One has to salute Taxuma Ogunseye for calling out his erstwhile comrade, Rupert Roopnarine for betraying the principles of the WPA.
He doesn’t buy the idea that the disavowal of a living wage for Public Servants is WPA kosher!
