The war against terrorism

LAST week, the National Assembly approved a motion to convey its sympathy to the sorrowing family of former Member of Parliament and terror-plot convict, Abdul Kadir.
This motion has generated the kind of reaction from the opposition which has come to define their behaviour in and out of office. There have also been wild accusations that the coalition administration’s senior partner, the PNC/R, has a history of exonerating criminals when the record would show that it was the PPP who in 2015 refused to back the anti-terrorism bill and has repeatedly attacked reforms in the security sector both in and out of office.

There could be no doubt that government has had a zero-tolerance and an uncompromising approach to the fight against terrorism. One of its early acts on coming into office was passage of the anti-terrorism bill, which the PPP opposed and abstained from voting for it, after raising questions about the “draconian” bill, including the inclusion of the death penalty for 14 offences.

In piloting the bill, Attorney General Basil Williams had said some of the provisions were mandated by the global anti-money laundering body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Unsurprisingly, only earlier this month the United States recognised this country’s efforts in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. In fact, the US Department of State in its recent report on Guyana noted that this country
has made significant progress on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism;  and though it urges more investigations and successful prosecutions are needed, it concluded that President David Granger’s government has shown the political will to tackle this scourge.

In a further demonstration of this commitment, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, said that cognisant of the challenges and risks it currently faces in the fight to combat this scourge, Guyana recently appointed a new assistant solicitor-general with responsibility for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

Additionally, back in December, 2018, it was widely reported that Guyana had performed well to rank 128th on the Global Terrorism Index moving from 117 the previous year 2017.
Guyana’s score on the index, where lower is better, went from 0.154 in 2017 to 0.076 in 2018, a more than 50 per cent improvement. On a list of categorisations, where 8-10 is listed as Very High and 0.000 is listed as No Impact, Guyana’s risk of terrorism was listed as very low, the best of any CARICOM state and the second best in South America, behind Bolivia, which poses no terrorist threat or contribution to terrorism.
The global war against terrorism continues to be waged and Guyana has been playing its part in these efforts.

Man’s security is being challenged everyday. The level of sophistication of those bent on terroristic acts requires vigilance by all. At the same time, no longer can persons depend on government to put a foolproof system in place to protect them as citizens. As society evolves, values change and the one-size-fits-all approach, is not delivering across the board.

Consequently, leaders, researchers and thinkers need to return to the drawing board, examine what may have gone wrong, and seek to put corrective action in place. Strong military hardware (bombings and shootings) have not delivered the peace and tranquility in and across countries and regions, as the terrorists seem to be a few steps ahead of the formal security system. In the circumstances, it would be more beneficial for the opposition to join the administration in the fight against terrorism, rather than seeking political mileage from the motion that sought to sympathise with the relatives of Kadir.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.