Our society has become numb

Sep 21, 2008 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Sheila Holder

TOLERANCE LEVELS
It has struck me that as a people we are behaving very much like the laboratory frog in the experiment in which scientists placed a frog in water that they heated up slowly until it reached boiling point.

Amazingly, the frog became so acclimatized to the rising temperature it became unaware of the growing danger as it stood comfortably in the water that killed it.

This is the scenario Guyanese seem to find themselves in and, as a result, many have lost sight of the substance of what a free and democratic people would consider to be the keys to successful living.

Take for instance the revelations about the VAT rate made by Christopher Ram on July 15 last to wit, that a very senior political functionary had confided in him that the Government had discovered a significant error in the computation of the rate of the VAT, resulting in it being higher than it should have been.

So numb has the society become that virtually nothing has been done about this amazing revelation by a people who had been clamouring for a reduction in the VAT rate – a people for whom the IMF Board in their 2007 Article IV consultations with Government called for, “well-targeted assistance to the poor to achieve faster progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.”

PEOPLE’S SPENDING ABILITY VERY LOW
So preoccupied are the majority of our people in eking out a living or keeping their heads above water in (legitimate) businesses and trying to avoid courting the wrath of ‘El Présidente’, that little or no time has been spared to contemplate that behind most of Guyana’s economic woes is an economy that had stopped dead in its tracks since 1998 after hundreds of millions of dollars had been pumped into it by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) over the period.

STAGNATION OF THE LOCAL ECONOMY BEING IGNORED
When compared with other countries in the region, the primary conclusion being drawn by the IFIs about Guyana’s economic stagnation is the substantial decline in the share of net foreign and private domestic investment we’ve been able to attract, a decline in our labour force and an unstable political and industrial environment.

Yet, little or no effort is being made by the Jagdeo administration to attain some level of rapprochement with parliamentary opposition parties and the labour movement, address the constant exodus of large numbers of skilled Guyanese or, indeed, come to grips with the skyrocketing unemployment rate confronting the country, which no doubt is fuelling crime at unprecedented levels and people’s concerns about their physical security.

Among the other matters the IMF in its 2007 Article IV Board consultations noted was that “macroeconomic stability and growth are key to ameliorating poverty”, and urged Government in their usual paternalistic style to address the high cost of electricity, develop a reform programme for the NIS and improve governance, while noting that domestic and external imbalances remain large and that the economy continues to be vulnerable to shocks.

TRUST IN OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM LOW
As if adding insult to injury, we have to operate with a government that doles out largesse to a select few; a legal system that cries out for justice to be dispensed equitably and fairly (two years after filing an elections petition, the PM continues to squat on the AFC Region No. 10 parliamentary seat that GECOM’s Statements of Poll say that we won); corruption that has reached alarming levels while the state’s revenue machinery is being shamelessly misused to harass opposing voices – to list a few of the predicaments we face politically.

At the bottom of it all is a populace that has opted out of an intractable political situation, even as their personal social and economic situation deteriorates.

PEOPLE MUST BE MORE CIVIC-MINDED
But of similar concern to the society also must be the glaring signs of apparent indifference, ineffectiveness, sloth, outright failure of many functionaries operating outside of the ambit of government; the signs that citizens are falling short on their duty and responsibilities to family, community, country and their places of work.

Take for instance the fact that for the last three years residents living around the Mandela Avenue dump site have been crying out in vain against the deleterious effect of obnoxious and suffocating fumes emanating from that site.

Look at the piles of garbage that are an eye sore building up again now that Carifesta has ended, which citizens must be held accountable for in and around our schools, canals, places of business, roads, sea wall, public parapets, the lewd and loud music that continue to bellow from minibuses even after legislation has been passed prohibiting this.

Worthy of special mention is the disgraceful sight left behind on the seawall following the weekend recreational activities enjoyed by thousands of citizens.

Shame on the adults who don’t get it that it is their duty to dispose of their garbage properly and not drop it on the seawall grass parapet to be picked up by City Council workers next day!

MISUSE OF STATE MEDIA CONTINUES
It now seems clear that it will only be after the PPP government is removed from office that the state media will be used more responsibly to educate citizens on such matters and make them aware of what democracy entails rather than provide Guyanese with incessant doses of propaganda and over exposure of governing political personalities.

AFC AIMS TO REBUILD TRUST IN POLITICS & POLITICIANS
Next month end will be three years since the AFC was launched with its raison d’être and rallying cry, one of – ‘change’. We recognized since then that any paradigm shift that would lead to the kinds of socio/eco/political changes desirable in our circumstances would have to be principled, centred in the way we participate politically, based on truth and courage; and fuelled by the people themselves. ‘Change is inevitable. Change is constant’, Benjamin Disraeli informed us.

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