WITHIN recent weeks Guyanese have been advised by state agencies of the presence of illegal airstrips in our territory. While Guyana is a relatively big country by landmass, in relation to its population size, the presence of these airstrips highlight a deficiency in our capacity to fully monitor what is happening within our borders. None can deny that our borders are porous and beg for resources to improve both our aerial and land security.

The importance of security cannot be over emphasised, particularly in our situation where we face threats to our territorial integrity, overwhelming presence of a narco-trade within the region, securing our invaluable natural resources for the citizens’ benefit, and overall safety and security of our people and structures of governance.

The recent incident by Venezuelan soldiers, who attacked Guyanese civilians at the border location, is also another factor of security which cannot be overlooked, and is also intertwined to external forces daring to think that ours is a nation where such practice is permissible and doable.

The presence of these airstrips also highlights that our border locations and the dense hinterland are not being sufficiently peopled. The peopling of these areas are likely to minimise the opportunity to carry on illegal activities of such nature. Where those who are engaged in nefarious conduct, recognising they stand a chance of their illegal acts flying under the radar they are likely to follow through.

This brings attention to the point of the wisdom, or dare it be said absence thereof, for discarding of a national policy that at its core also factored in the necessity and importance of populating strategic areas in Guyana. The Guyana National Service (GNS) that was established in the 1970s during the Forbes Burnham administration had as one of its objectives to populate the hinterland and border locations. The resistance to this programme has seen it being used as a polarising rallying call to dismantle, not to understand, and where deficiencies were present seek to correct.

It cannot be ignored in this society how many opportunities for development have fallen by the wayside, undermined and dismantled, not because they were not good or lacked visionary foresight, but because of who were the initiators of these programmes and policies, and falling prey to international influence that was driven by an agenda that did not place the welfare of Guyana and Guyanese first.

As a result, Guyana’s security, including a structured expansion of its population, has been set back in the interior and hinterland locations. And while the GNS’ programme has been systematically dismantled during the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, forces with ill-conceived ideas, domestic and external, have seen this as opportunities to encroach. These illegal airstrips bring to the fore, once again, the need for a national programme to thwart the survival and expansion of encroachment and violation of our laws.

Though government, as a matter of necessity, will have to find the resources to improve security, it also has to recognise that such is better reinforced by encouraging the populating of those regions in a structured manner, not forgetting it has premier responsibility to facilitate the process. The society is fortunate to still have in our midst many of the pioneer leaders of the GNS. Including among them are Major General (retired) Norman McLean and Joe Singh, who headed the GNS and government can benefit from their institutional memory, patriotism, and successes in this endeavour.
The international fight against money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, where Guyana, by treaties and association, has a responsibility to thwart, cannot ignore that porous borders and unpopulated hinterland could deter our success and also bring with it sanctions for failing to comply.