Drama in High Places

May 04, 2009 Editorial

Thousands of years ago, in his play “Medea”, the Greek playwright Euripides bequeathed us the aphorism, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

He was describing Medea’s descent into self destructive madness where she kills her own children in order to hurt her ex-lover, who had spurned her for another. The irony was that Medea was fully aware of her fall into nihilism, but was willing to destroy everything around her so as to extract vengeance.

It would appear that we have a Medea Syndrome operating in Guyana in some very high places. Take, for instance, the labour movement. This venerable institution arose very early in our history as an instrument to fight the excesses of colonialism.

Our modern political movement arose out of trade union agitation but very soon, the former eclipsed the latter and began using it as a tool for furthering interests that, in many instances, were detrimental to that of workers. We have now reached a point where the trade union movement has been torn asunder, not necessarily over trade union issues but moreso over loyalties to one political camp or another.

It appears that the political leaders are willing to have the trade unions that under their thumb march over a cliff like lemmings, just so that they can exact vengeance over each other. The desire for retribution goes back over half a century when they engaged in a series of betrayals and counter betrayals as they jockeyed for the perks of power.

We might understand the psychology, sick as it is, for the politicians to contemplate the destruction of the trade union movement, since they now have their own vehicles of power, but what is in it for the trade unionists? Do they believe they will not be cast aside, like so many sucked-orange skins, when they have pummeled each other into pulps?

Then we have the case of the politicians themselves who have plotted and schemed and battled (literally) over the aforementioned half-a-century to capture the prize of ruling Guyana – encapsulated nowadays in the office of the Presidency. Yet it is clear that some of these politicians are willing to drag the office of the Presidency into the mud in their no-holds-barred efforts to capture the latter institution.

The latest example, which is not as trivial as it may appear, is the obdurate insistence of some members of the opposition to refer to the incumbent President by his name without using the title? This practice demeans not the office holder, but the office which the opposition hopes to acquire. But once again, the bile that suffuses our political elite impels them to self-destructive behavior just to settle old scores.

And this brings us to the sick drama playing out in our High Court. The Judiciary is one arm of the state that is supposed to be above the internecine warfare that unfortunately typifies the operations of its cohorts – the Executive and Legislative branches.

The Judiciary dispenses justice to the society and its procedures become as important as the substance of its decisions because of the need to have those decisions be accepted as legitimate. On account of this imperative, all jurisdictions have taken great pains to cloak the operations of the Judiciary with elaborate ceremonies – even dress – so as to project an aura of probity and impartiality.

The exchange of accusations that are flying between the Registrar and Chancellor only serve to bring the entire judicial system into disrepute. We hope that these high officials will not go down the path of those who have shown that they are willing to bring down the institutions that they are supposed to serve in the pursuit of vengeance. Such actions are very short sighted – since in the instances we have cited, it is not just some children that might die as in Medea, but an entire society.

We hope they all reflect on the following caution from the play:

“Manifold are thy shapings, Providence!

Many a hopeless matter gods arrange.

What we expected never came to pass,

What we did not expect the gods brought to bear;

So have things gone, this whole experience through!”

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