The refusal of Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin, to sign the communiqué agreed to by the political parties is not surprising. The PNCR’s posture on crime in Guyana has always been the same from the late 1990s.

Corbin’s refusal to sign the communiqué is an indication of how serious he is about contributing to the reduction of crime in Guyana. Ever since February 23, 2002, the PNCR has adopted a posture which gives support to the criminals who have invaded the village of Buxton.

As far as I can remember, Buxton was, in the period of Dr Walter Rodney, the stronghold of the WPA and with the likes of Eusi Kwayana and many others, they led the struggles against the Forbes Burnham’s PNC oppression. This gave rise to the perception that their support for the criminals may have been deliberate.

Further, during the crime spree that followed the February 23, 2002, jail break they labelled these criminals ‘freedom fighters’. This was given further prominence when the Desmond Hoyte led PNC draped the coffin of the slain notorious bandit ‘Blackie’ with the national flag and had his body placed at the Square of the Revolution. This process was repeated several times over.

Following this, the PNCR launched what seemed to be a sustained attack against the operations of the Target Special Squad, a specialised unit of the police which had achieved great success confronting armed criminal gangs and were responsible for the end of the 2002 escapees. While it argued that some of its members (specifically named) were involved in a number of illegal activities, they wanted the entire squad to be disbanded.

With the disbanding of the Target Special Squad, there has been a re-emergence of armed crimes in Guyana. The criminals have become emboldened, knowing that the regular police, with their different duties, will not be able to confront them with any success. They are supported by a battery of lawyers who are always ready to represent them.

It is not surprising therefore that one of the accused in the stolen army AK-47 rifle is represented by a prominent leader in the PNCR, Basil Williams, a Member of Parliament and Central Executive Committee of the PNCR.

A number of ‘red herrings’ were raised with relation to the Joint Services ‘operations restore order’ in the backlands of the East Coast Demerara. No comment was made about the immediate successes achieved by the troops.

Corbin is now calling for a specialised SWAT team to be formed to deal with these crimes. The President has said that two teams comprising ranks from the Police Force and Army are already in place and have been given the task to find these criminals - what is Corbin’s response? He wants them to be under the direction of the Police Force. His next request may be the names, addresses and telephone contact numbers of the team.

Corbin and the PNCR leadership are yet to prove that they are serious about stamping out crime in Guyana. In his recent interview with a Trinidad Television Station, he spoke to the reporter about the demoralised Police Force in Guyana. He however failed to mention that the PNCR battery of lawyers had filed private criminal charges against a number of Policemen for killing dangerous criminals during armed confrontations.

He did not mention the PNCR weekly press conferences where its members demonise the Police Force, nor did he mention the ‘Justice For All’ programme where people call in and give the names and addresses of police ranks whom they perceive to have done them an injustice.

His ‘bad mouthing’ Guyana in a foreign media is just another example of his unprofessional approach to dealing with situations in Guyana. The reasons given by him for not signing the communiqué are most unfortunate; and with regard to his list of demands, they are impractical to achieve any sense of security in the long or short term. The only person who would benefit from those requests is Corbin.

Guyanese need to begin to seriously listen and observe the conduct of these so -called leaders and find out who benefits when the country is in turmoil. It is time that the good citizens of Guyana start holding the opposition to account for their inaction.
Albert Jacobs