Caretaker President David Granger on Thursday demanded loyalty and obedience whilst delivering remarks to members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) during the Presentation of Instruments ceremony for newly commissioned officers.
Granger told the ranks, including superiors in the hierarchy of the GDF, that they must support and defend the State against all enemies whomsoever.
The Head-of-State said the instrument “appoints a person to high office, conferring on him (or her) the authority to exercise the functions of command in the GDF”
He said, “the Commission distinguishes the officer from the non-commissioned officer and the private soldier”
According to Granger, “the State Commission and Instrument of Commission are not merely certificates to mark the successful completion of a training course” since, they constitute the lawful licences to exercise authority as military officers.
Prefacing his charge that the officers abide with their Oath of Office, Granger iterated that the “the State Commission demands trust, loyalty and good conduct on the officer’s part; it requires the exercise of diligence, discipline and dedication in the discharge of his duties.”
According to the A Partnership for National Unity, Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Presidential Candidate—in the still to be concluded General and Regional Election—the instruments requires the officers to “demonstrate obedience to his superiors, to demand compliance from his subordinates and extend cooperation with his compeers.”
The GDF’s de-facto Commander-in-Chief challenged the officers to uphold the oath which you have sworn, that “I…will bear true faith and allegiance to the state of Guyana; that I will support and defend the State against all enemies whomsoever; that I will faithfully discharge the functions of an officer in the Guyana Defence Force without fear or favour, affection or ill will and that in the discharge of those functions, I will honour, uphold and preserve the Constitution of Guyana.”
According to Granger, “I challenge you to uphold the Force’s five core values – duty, discipline, identity, integrity and loyalty”
The de-facto Army Commander, in concluding his remarks, “required” of the newly commissioned officers, conduct in consonance with the GDF school’s ideological training, of loyalty to superiors and State, in addition to “discipline and steadfastness”, among other maxims.
