Opinion polls and the public’s moral conscience

Aug 10, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The revelation in a US Court and the revelations about contracts within the local drainage and irrigation sector should have adversely affected the popularity of two ministers of the government, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and Mr. Robert Persaud.

Instead a poll conducted in the very month during which attention was being focused on the Health Ministry and on activities within the Agricultural Ministry, have unearthed the very opposite result to what was expected. They have revealed that these two ministers are the most popular.

It is possible that the poll was conducted before the revelations in the Robert Simels trial. The trail got going only towards the latter part of July and the reaction since would not have been factored into that poll.

Also, it is possible that the Minister’s excellent showing could have been due to sympathy evoked as a result of the fire which destroyed the Ministry of Health. It is equally possible that the Minister of Health is not as popular anymore.

In the case of the Minister of Agriculture, it is difficult to image how he could have avoided a serious dip in his approval ratings following the revelations in this newspaper about projects being administered by the Drainage and Irrigation Board.

But who knows, it may also be that Minister Persaud had a huge popularity rating which while affected by the revelations was still enough to allow him to come second to Minister Ramsammy in the polls. It all depends on the credibility one gives to polls conducted by Bisram.

This column is not about Bisram. It is about the alliance which has been forged between the opposition parties following the revelations in the Robert Simels trial.

This grouping has opted to compile a dossier of human rights violations for circulation to the international community. It is also proposing to engage local organisations.

It would be important before this alliance does these things that it carries opinion polls in Guyana on various issues.

This is one of the major areas of weaknesses within Guyanese society. There is a serious absence of credible polls which would have been one of the principal reasons for the stunting of civil society.

I strongly believe that if there were more polls being carried out, the elements within Guyanese society which could genuinely emerge as a civil society force would be better able to do so because they would have the benefit of opinion polls on positions and thus not as vulnerable to being sucked into either of the two main political camps.

Groups and organisations within Guyana would be able to embrace positions on issues knowing without the fear that such support would be perceived as aligning them with either of the main political camps in Guyana.

The opposition parties need to seriously consider the need to allow civil society to emerge within Guyana. They need to allow these groupings to take positions free of political influence. They also need to test a number of positions to gauge public popularity.

There is great division within Guyana about the alleged activities of Roger Khan. There are tens of thousands of Guyanese who see Khan as a hero for having the courage to stand up when policemen were afraid to hang their uniforms on their clothes lines.

There are tens of thousands of Guyanese who wanted nothing to do with the Buxton conspiracy and who could not give a hang about the human rights of the criminals who were shut within that village either by their own men, the police or by forces unknown.

There are some Guyanese who were prepared to disregard the killing of innocent people and the pain and loss they were inflicting on families some of whom were forced to leave Guyana.

There are many who saw these depraved bandits as freedom fighters, simply because the activities of these criminals were undermining the government and society and thus serving political ends.

But I believe that by and large, the vast majority of Guyanese did not give a hand about the human rights or the manner in which some of these gunmen met their end.

Unfortunately, I do not have an opinion poll to justify by beliefs. But I believe that the vast majority of Guyanese take a position based on what they see as right and wrong and they take a position that criminals are bad and those opposed to criminals are the good guys.

We have not reached the stage where people are going to be that concerned about defending the rights of persons accused of crimes.

And this is why the opposition alliance must be careful in the positions they adopt because they may be pursuing a human rights campaign over matters which may not find popular support.

They must appreciate for example that the vast majority of Guyanese are not going to be interested in defending the human rights of Inspector Gadget.

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