–former AFC parliamentarian says; highlights party’s relegation to a ‘press release’ party, absence of its voice while in gov’t
FORMER Alliance for Change (AFC) Parliamentarian, Trevor Williams has flayed the party for its poor management of the public security sector while it was married to the A Partnership for National (APNU) as part of a coalition that constituted the seat of government from 2015-2020.

Williams in a letter to the editor, said: “It is rather disheartening to see the Alliance For Change, the once promising third force that provided hope to the country for bringing about meaningful changes and reforms in our political culture and governance systems, now being relegated to being the ‘press release’ party, churning out myriad recommendations and proposals of ideas for improved security which it had no space to propose much less implement under the coalition government.”

He said that this was the very party that held ministerial responsibility for the security sector in a period “stained by explosive allegations of corruption and the imposition of the power of party paramountcy over the country’s security forces.”

The former parliamentarian went on to say: “It was under the AFC’s security portfolio that Guyana experienced the most corrupted system for the issuance of firearm licences and citizenship, the prostituting of the Guyana Police Force in unbridled witch-hunting of political opponents of the coalition; and Gestapo-like control of the electoral machinery of the 2020 regional and general elections, as was seen by all and sundry during the attempted rigging of the Region Four returns at the Ashmin building,” he said, adding that the party is now “grasping at straws in the very sector where its most glaring failures were recorded.”

Against this backdrop, according to Williams, the AFC is now proposing several measures it sees as vital for arresting public security amid, what it says is “escalating crime and narco-trafficking” situation.
Williams related that the AFC wants the current government to implement the recommendations of the British Security Sector Reform which the coalition left “languishing in the dust.”

Staying on the topic of security, he questioned if the party believes the Guyanese people have forgotten the “concocted” assassination plot against Former Head of State, David Granger and the political “hijacking” of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and its “puppet masters” to secure the elections rigging process.

He went on to say: “They are calling for stronger community policing, which the coalition abandoned; they want better vetting of police officers, especially senior ranks, many of whom the coalition used to enable the subversion of the constitution and rule of law during the election tabulation and verification process; they now want wider surveillance systems; enhanced road signage; convening of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Security; and most laughably, the depoliticisation of law enforcement.”

He added: “All of these lofty recommendations stand in stark contrast to the recklessness that passed as public security management under Ramjattan, reckless abandonment which enabled glaring security lapses and breaches that led to the burning of the Camp Street Prisons, and a callous and ill-thought-out gamble of issuing hundreds of pardons for criminals instead of serious approaches to reform and rehabilitation.

“There could be no doubt that it is the AFC and its consuming domineers in the 2015-2020 Coalition Government who must be held responsible and accountable for encouraging and offering support to criminal elements bent on destabilising the country, before and during their reign.”