I REFER to a letter in the Stabroek News written by Carl Parker in its issue of Saturday, January 26, 2013 under the caption “The Lethem heist reveals serious security deficiencies.”

Carl Parker is an APNU activist masquerading as someone of importance
Please permit me to state the following:
1. Carl Parker is an APNU activist in the Rupununi region masquerading as someone of importance, but is only a bluff. Trained in jungle craft, I am advancing towards his position.
2. Parker in his letter stated that there are serious security deficiencies at Lethem, but failed to say what are the deficiencies, and how  these deficiencies could be addressed. He simply boasted about the security apparatus under the Burnham dictatorship and that’s all.
3. Parker said that he was “a young Lieutenant in the GDF” in the 1980s and the Northwest of Guyana was one of the areas in which he served. Can Parker say then who shot and killed young Amerindian Patrick Rodrigues of Hosororo in Mabaruma where up to today justice has not been served? The answer is, a GDF soldier. Can Parker give me the name of this soldier?
4. But while Parker boasted about Burnham’s security apparatus, he failed miserably to mention that the GDF soldiers broke up the homes of Amerindians by dislocating their family structures and threatening them with their guns which caused them to live in fear. Can Parker make comments on these evils practised by the GDF soldiers under the Burnham dictatorship?
5. The fact that Parker’s vision is clouded by his old PNC/APNU politics means that he is handicapped to offer any solution towards improving the security situation at Lethem. Yet he writes about security deficiencies. But it is said that a dog that sucks eggs cannot stop and so is Carl Parker who in these modern times is unable to understand that the old gives way to the new.
6. But if Parker says that he is concerned about the security situation at Lethem, I am challenging him to form a community policing group where he and his soldier buddies can play an important role in public security and crime prevention, rather than just wasting time bad-mouthing the Government of Guyana. Definitely a community policing group at Lethem is essential to assist the police in the fight against crime, since as Parker said there is a “population explosion” and the “establishment of several businesses”. I do hope that Parker will take my challenge very seriously and I can assure him that the people at Lethem will be most happy.