Dear Editor,
I noted a press release from President Irfaan Ali’s office notifying the public that he met on October 23, 2026, with a “Broad-based Task Force to develop Comprehensive Recommendations and Actions to Address the Welfare and Safety of Children.” While this is a good idea, why now? This child is not the first child allegedly murdered during his tenure as President. But let us assume Irfaan Ali finally woke up — did he or his staff realize the press release contradicts its own stated purpose?
The release says the approach “must include parents, the Government, the school system, the social and religious organizations, law enforcement, the Judiciary, and every other important stakeholder.”
Yet the meeting itself convened representatives from Government, the Judiciary, the Speaker of the National Assembly, constitutional commissions, law enforcement, and civil society.
Notice who is named as essential but absent from the room: the children themselves; actual parents of children from the most affected Regions (3, 4, 5, 6 and 10); the teachers’ union, the GTU; actual educators from the most affected Regions; religious organizations from the most affected Regions and from the villages directly affected over the last six years; child protection specialists such as ChildLink and Blossom Inc.; mental health professionals such as Dr. Bhiro Harry and the mental health doctors from Berbice; the women’s representative from the Amerindian community; the three women Members of Parliament from the political opposition; the senior probation officers who work with Minister Vindhya Persaud; a sprinkling of headteachers from the most affected Regions; and representative members of the NDCs in the most affected Regions.
If you are going to fix a broken system, then you must do it right at the first effort. The task force is to be coordinated by the Attorney General and composed of government, the judiciary, law enforcement, religious organizations, and civil society. Again, the constituencies the document calls indispensable — parents, educators, frontline child-welfare workers, the political opposition and young people — have no stated seat at the table.
This is not a trivial omission. A task force on children’s safety that excludes children, teachers, and parent bodies risks producing recommendations that are legally and institutionally tidy but socially disconnected from the lived reality it claims to address. The release announces a “broad-based” task force while describing a narrow, state-centered convening. Same story in Irfaan Ali’s Guyana, different day. This body is nothing else but more rhetoric.
Sincerely,
Charles Sugrim
Discussion