OPINION: Recognising, hailing, Dr. Clifton Hicken

Last Updated on Sunday, 7 June 2026, 7:29 by Denis Chabrol

By GHK Lall

I was always confident that in Dr. Clifton Hicken, the PPP Govt had the right man for the Commissioner of Police job. To ensure there’s no mix-up nor disorderliness, I hasten to clarify: the PPP kind of policing job. There he is, proudly beaming in gown and cap and collecting his well-earned piece of embossed parchment. Some may disagree about well-earned. I stick to my position. Look at his work achievements. A handpicked selection follows.

Serious crime is down, according to police stats. Depends on the definitions for all three: ‘serious’, ‘crime’, and ‘stats.’ If the PPP says it’s not lawbreaking when one of its own is involved, it’s not lawbreaking. Also, police stats could have some relation to the Stats Bureau stats. Focus specifically on food inflation. Believe one, and the other is gospel. Believe both, and clearly there is readiness to believe anything. Including Pres Ali’s world-class PhD, and that Vice President Jagdeo (another world-famous doctor) is not the de facto president of Guyana. I call him the silent leader. Back to law and order, and police work under Dr. Hicken.

A government vehicle in a trench should serve as a reminder of how matters are defined, classified, and handled in this country. The president took it upon himself to shove aside Dr. Hicken on that occasion to perform as commissioner of police. He spoke of grown people, responsible people, and prim and proper people (legally speaking). Recall the Minister of Tint. Matter over. Case closed. Talk about expedited justice for Guyanese, and there it was with the presidential seal of office. Any police interest in that government vehicle in a trench was over before it started. When politics took over, police work was over. I submit that that is a special kind of policing, one worthy of a doctorate. Cybercrimes are almost nonexistent under Top Cop, Dr. Hicken. Again, the qualifier centers around who is the perp. If Guyana’s ERC doesn’t have a problem, why should Dr. Hicken rock the boat and paddle against the red tide?

Dr. Hicken hasn’t been a policeman for over a half century and didn’t learn anything along the way. Like how to go along to get along. How to work the angles in the territory. Policing in Guyana is jungle warfare. In the PPP made Guyana concrete and steel jungle, Top Cop Hicken has earned his pay, earned his extended stay, and earned his hard-won doctorate. I am taking a page out of the commissioner’s and the president’s book. Done with Uncle Sam universities and linking up with Indian ones. A recommendation will be sought from Dr. Jagdeo. I could find use for a doctorate myself. Age has not been a problem for Clifton Hicken, so why discriminate against me?

It is inspiring that Dr. Hicken’s toils have been recognized, now honored. There was Matthews Ridge and over four tons of cocaine. Police work. One big police officer dispatched to the scrapyard. Efficiency and authority. Adriana Younge late of the Essequibo, a video of a mystery vehicle, a drowning pool, and a post postmortem conflagration. More good police work. Containment. Just ask some Chinese businesspeople. Another big police officer rotated out of the firing line. More efficiency and authority.

When all of this (and more of a similar kind) are taken into consideration, Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken deserves not one, but two PhDs. If he refuses a second one, I’ll take it. For those citizens of this Guyana of respect for the rule of law and a country of laws and not men (AG Nandlall), I urge revisiting newspaper archives, google files, and there is the evidence, a long trail. I was the first in Guyana to address Mr. Hicken as Dr. Hicken from over a year ago. Check it out. Anil Nandlall is coming up. His LL. D is on its way from the Maldives, Caracas, or Tel Aviv.