PPP members under SARU, SOCU investigation – Rohee

… calls for end to militarisation of State

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is lamenting what it said was government’s move to have members of the party be investigated, and lashed out at the State Assest Recovery Unit (SARU)and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

The party’s General Secretary (GS) Clement Rohee has deemed this move as “political witch-hunting.”

“The use of the Guyana Police Force to harass and arrest activists of the PPP, and the use of the criminal justice system to delay and thus deny justice to the electors’ of the PPP vis-à-vis the 2015 Elections Petition,” the General Secretary said, noting that “the PPP understands that recently, based on political directives, warrants have been solicited from the Court to gain access to bank accounts of former PPP Ministers and to carry out searches at their respective places of residence. All of the above are politically inspired and motivated.”

Rohee said the party has noted the persistent threats by Professor Clive Thomas, head of SARU, to PPP leaders and former government and state functionaries:

“The Party wishes to remind once again that SARU has no locus standing within the meaning of neither the Constitution of the Republic nor the laws of Guyana. Any attempt to use SARU to illegally harm the legitimate economic and financial interests of any PPP/C leader and/or former government functionary on the basis of wild, unsubstantiated and politically motivated allegations of corruption will be stoutly and resolutely rebuffed by the Party,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rohee added that the party continues to have growing concerns over what it said is the militarization of the state and government apparatus in Guyana, by the current administration.

“This tendency is increasingly manifesting itself under the Granger administration, coupled with this development, is the steady but rapid progression of our country in the direction of a ‘police state’. This dangerous and unwelcomed development has its historical antecedents in the Burnham era of which Mr Granger is a product.”

According to him, the new administration has a “penchant for placing retired and serving military officers in Government agencies and departments and to head Commissions of Inquiry into one incident after another”.

“This practice has become so blatant that one letter writer recently posed the question whether being an officer or having once been an officer in the Guyana Defence Force offer a distinct advantage over the ordinary mortal of this country or is being an officer or having been an officer now is a prerequisite for certain State appointments?”

He pointed out that what the “pro-militaristic administration” has done by virtue of this practice, is to demonstrate its distrust for civilians who are qualified to perform such functions in contradistinction to military personnel. Also by moving in this direction, it seems Government has “outfoxed” the AFC by placing its military confederates in key and critical positions knowing that the AFC would be more inclined to nominate civilians to the said positions which the APNU has absolutely no interest in doing.

“The PPP is of the view that the rise of the APNU+AFC sponsored police state will inexorably result in the decline of freedom in Guyanese. Under the PPP/C, Guyanese abided by the rule of law and successive PPP/C administrations were held accountable for their actions.

He said since coming into office, APNU+AFC has caused the country to gradually evolve into a police state where justice has become one-sided, an urban middle-class bureaucratic elite runs the show, accountability and transparency is a mockery, the Guyana Police Force is gradually being transformed into an appendage of the military, surveillance of persons of interest (POI’s) is rampant, privacy is constantly being invaded and eroded, and the law is little more than a tool for the Granger administration to browbeat Guyanese into compliance.