A comprehensive overhaul of the police and army is needed

Dear Editor,
It is time for all Guyanese to face an inconvenient truth. The politically correct statement that “Our men and women in uniform are by and large hardworking and honest but the reputation is being tarnished by a few bad eggs …” is just that, a politically correct statement.
In reality the majority of Guyanese feel/know that our policemen and soldiers are corrupt and willingly and frequently engage in illegal activities. Which one of us would leave our valuables at a police station willingly? Who among us will feel comfortable in the knowledge that a police party had reason to enter our homes in our absence? Which one of us would enter into police custody relaxed with the knowledge that we are innocent so we have nothing to fear?
The earlier we consciously and officially accept what we all subconsciously know the quicker we will be able to solve the problem.
For any plan of action that is designed to address the “few bad eggs” in our disciplined services is doomed to fail simply because it does not address the real problem. What is needed is a comprehensive overhaul of the police and army.
This brings us to the withdrawal of British support for the proposed security services reform.
The British having recognised the true depth of the problem insisted on certain conditionalities to address the lack of institutional capacity within the security services. Unfortunately the Government of Guyana has not accepted the inconvenient truth that our security services suffer from acute incompetence and corruption at all levels.
Consequently we lost a golden opportunity to address the problem thereby condemning the long suffering citizens of Guyana to more incidents of corruption, torture, theft and bungled investigations from the persons sworn and paid to serve and protect. May God help us all.
Neo Anderson