How
high up the mountain?
RECENTLY,
in light of two boring Sunday editorials by Stabroek News
about the Army, I have listed a few questions for Brigadier
Edward Collins, the Chief of Staff.
I
raise these questions for the sake of legitimate
documentation.
1.
Would the final Army report about the missing guns be made
available to media houses, as it should be, and the findings
subjected to external audits? After all, the Army cannot be
trusted to conduct an investigation into its own mishaps —
especially in light of events these past few months.
2.
The Chief of Staff claims that no one is immune from
interrogations. If so, why have the homes of the
“masterminds” involved with the Buxton Gang, not raided
and those individuals’ names not in the papers, although
they are at the centre of a national security dilemma?
3.
On April 2, Lt. Col. Claude Fraser said the Army was
“pretty sure that the guns are not being moved around but
that they are locked down somewhere…” He did not mention
anything about 2001 or 30 AK-47s being missing (not 33). Was
critical information withheld from the public?
4.
On April 6th, the last “briefing” by Brigadier Collins
was done at the Police Officers’ conference, where the
revealing information was made public. Are we to assume that
between April 2 and April 6, the Army made critical
discoveries? Would the media be allowed to verify the
genesis of this change?
5.
Why was the “briefing” by the Brigadier done at the
Police conference? Was this to deflect attention, since the
conference was already shrouded with the Felix controversy?
6.
In a time when every word from the Army needs to be
carefully measured, what does the Brigadier mean by saying
that the Army wants to return “national security” (or
Guyana) “back to the point where it was before the
disappearance” of the weapons, knowing well that
“national security” has been under threat since 2001, if
not before?
7.
Does the Brigadier think that the noticeable silence from
the PNCR on the grave Army lapse would historically affect
the image of the Army, given that historians would interpret
this as evidence of a supposed collusion between the Army
and PNCR interests?
8.
In similar light, is the Brigadier concerned that in a
racially polarized nation, at least half of the public now
regards the true motive for Joint Services raids, as a
campaign against certain Indian businessmen (e.g., Roger
Khan), a bogus search for guns? Take, for
example, the Stabroek News cartoon (dated 04/02/06) in which
the Police Commissioner is depicted as stompin’ over the
city while a rodent-like smuggler carrying his bag of
weapons, watches bemused and says: “An I done move out
long time…hee hee.”
Commissioner
of Police Winston Felix
U.G,
Bachelor’s
Degree in the Social Sciences (Public Management)
9.
Does it matter to the Chief of Staff that the raid on the
home of an Indian PNCR MP is being seen NOT as a mistake,
but as an Army-Police ploy to counter the aforementioned
popular belief?
10.
How high up the mountain has the trail led thus far? In
other words, is any senior Army figure being protected from
investigation, given that it is rather suspicious that at
the very least, no senior Army official has been held for
such an historic and colossal blunder?
RAKESH RAMPERTAB
day,
May 21, 2006