When will Ramjattan finally accept ministerial responsibility and resign? (Part 1)

Dear Editor,
As a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee for the Security Sector, I have been taking special interest in the performance (or lack thereof) of the Public Security Minister, the Honourable Khemraj Ramjattan.
Apart from his arrogance and total disdain for the People’s Progressive Party, Ramjattan is someone with whom you would want to have a beer. He is approachable, and is never afraid to speak his mind, which often gets him into trouble.
I honestly believe he wants to accomplish his goals in the security sector, but lacks the vision to so do. He listens to the needs of the brave Police and Prison officers, and appears eager to fulfill those needs, but he is powerless to do so. While Ramjattan may be accessible and approachable as a person, as the Minister of Public Security, he is a complete failure.
This is a man who despises Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP so much that he allegedly demanded the security portfolio as part of the Cummingsburg Accord with one goal in mind: to put the “corrupt” leaders of the PPP behind bars.
This would explain his focus on working with UK Security Expert Sam Sittlington and SOCU to prosecute Anil Nandlall, Ashni Singh and others, while neglecting the urgent need to do something to end the vicious cycle of crime that is destroying lives and commerce, prompting the UK Government to issue a particular travel advisory to its citizens.
While I can find no fault with the advisory, I wonder if the British Foreign Office is aware that security expert Sam Sittlington, whose services are paid for by British taxpayers, is actively engaged in a political witch-hunt to prosecute high ranking PPP members, rather than going after the drug traffickers and money-launderers as he was employed to do. Perhaps it’s time the Foreign Office account for his actions.
In Guyana today, people no longer feel safe in their homes. Crime is running amok everywhere, raining terror on a population that is already stressed out trying to make ends meet. More and more families are being deprived of their valuables, communities are ravished, and businesses are left vulnerable.
In 2015, the APNU/AFC coalition campaigned on a platform to get rid of corruption and “reduce the high rate of armed robberies and murders.”
And immediately upon gaining office, this Government embarked upon a security recruitment drive, pulling several former high-ranking military and Police officers out of retirement to achieve this objective. They have failed miserably!
Since becoming Minister of Public Security, Ramjattan has brought the entire security sector into disrepute. In March 2016, seventeen (17) prisoners were burnt to death and 11 others injured in what was described as the worst prison riot in our history. Then in July 2017, during the blazing inferno of the Camp Street Prison, a Prison officer was murdered and 8 notorious hard-core criminals escaped, two of whom are believed to be still on the run. Since then, there have been several more well-organised prison breaks.
Every day, reports of armed robberies, murders and domestic violence dominate the news. Prisoners, with the aid of some rogue Prison officers, are now openly defying authority. At the New Amsterdam Prison, narcotics, alcohol and other contraband were recently discovered in the prison yard. And an inmate there flaunted the breakdown of authority in the Prison system by posting a photograph on Facebook with fellow inmates in a cell, cerebrating Mother’s Day with several bottles of high-end liquor. During a search of the Lusignan Prison, a quantity of illegal items were also found: Improvised weapons, cellphones, cellphone batteries, phone chargers, phone cards, cannabis, cannabis seeds and a cannabis plant. Earlier, a cutlass and a knife were found outside of the north eastern fence of the holding bay of that Prison.

Sincerely,
Harry Gill
PPP Member of
Parliament