President defends appointment of soldiers to civilian posts

Militarisation claims

– says PPP/C did the same

In light of mounting concerns from the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and other quarters of society over the increasing militarisation of Guyana, President David Granger, who himself is a retired Army Chief-of-Staff, has sought to defend his Administration’s appointments of several military personalities in high profile positions.

The President told reporters during the taping of this week’s television programme – The Public Interest – on Thursday that the military officers appointed by his Administration are experienced and competent persons.

“These are human beings, these are people with skills, you know. They are not a separate breed of citizens, we can’t deprive them of their rights if they have the talent, the experience, the qualifications,” Granger stated.

According to the Head of State, his Administration is facing the brunt of criticism on militarisation when the mass appointments of Army officers to senior Government positions began under the Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar led Administrations.

In fact, he disclosed that when he took office in May 2015, there were about 10 Army officers that were appointment by the PPP/C Administration. The President even listed several of those persons including Major General Joe Singh and Colonel Chabulall Ramsaroop, among others.

Moreover, Granger went on to say that he will not overlook qualified Army officers because of their association with the military.

“I don’t discriminate against them and obviously Mr Jagdeo and Mr Ramotar didn’t discriminate against them because I inherited a large number of former military officers who have been appointed by the PPP Administration,” he stated.

The President went on to say, “I don’t see that anything could be wrong with asking a Colonel here or a Brigadier here to do a Commission of Inquiry. The question is are they competent to do it… there is an old saying it doesn’t matter if it’s a black cat or a white cat, if it catches the rats, it’s a good cat,” the Head of State remarked.

Only last week, General Secretary of the PPP Clement Rohee, said the party continues to have growing concerns over the militarisation of the State and Government apparatus in Guyana, by the coalition 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,” Rohee stated. Furthermore, Rohee 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 Alliance For Change (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, Rohee asserted, the A Partnership for National Unity (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” said the PPP/C General Secretary. Since the election of President Ganger and his coalition in May 2015, several retired Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Officers have been appointed in key advisory positions within the Government.

Also, a number of soldiers have been seconded to work in the Defence Secretariat at the Ministry of the Presidency, where they are required to wear their uniforms. Additionally, the Ministry of the Presidency recently announced that Colonel Nazrul Hussain would head the Department of National Events, after a series of bungled arrangements for Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary. A number of army officers have also been appointed to a number of State Boards and other civilian positions.

The PPP’s concerns were renewed last week after two Army officers were recently appointed to head two Commissions of Inquiries.