IT WAS commendable of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s leadership to have visited the Guyana Defence Force’s Chief-of-Staff for discussions, against the background of the recent arrests of drug suspects in both New York and Italy.Call this the hallmark of proper responsibility of national leadership, of which OBSERVER has always contended Mr. David Granger is capable. Subsequent to this meeting, he is on record as continuously criticizing the government for not doing anything about the narcotics situation in Guyana, as well as for the absence of the Drug Strategy Master Plan, for the past three years.
But how justified is he in his apparent sincerity and concerns over Guyana’s general crime scene landscape, and now, his most recent criticisms when he has refused to support the Government on the following measures, all having to do with combating serious crime?
Beginning with the non-support for the Reform of the Security Sector plans; failure to support the Firearms (Amendment) Bill on its initial presentation in the National Assembly; and the shocking anti-national act of withholding support for legislation of the all-important Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act, the enactment of which will enable action to be taken against the participants of transnational crime, on which he has also pronounced on numerous occasions.
Even the plan for the implementation of the Special Weapons and Arms Team (SWAT) he has not only deemed as unsuitable, but has also dismissed. Of course, the entire nation is aware of Granger’s security expertise, and is indeed very much surprised at his definite views towards such a special squad, which is present in most of today’s states. It is impossible to confront the nature of the existing criminal mosaic without such a force; it is akin to having one without the other.
David Granger has continued to emit a dangerous level of contradiction, and this can only be consigned to the well known category of hypocrisy, which is the true description of his political leadership.