Disrespect is a growing menace

Jun 15, 2010 Editorial

Respect in general is crucial to how a society develops and operates. It determines whether people would walk around freely and without fear, or whether they would suffer at the hands of bullies, unaided by anyone.
It seems as if respect is disappearing from the vocabulary, the general attitude of people both young and old and even from the training parents instill in their children. This situation was glaringly exposed in the National Assembly last week when two Members of Parliament threatened to come to blows over the fact that one said something untoward to the other.
In some countries Parliament, or the House of Assembly, as they call it is a place where fisticuffs are sometimes the order of the day. It has happened in the Russian Parliament and in the Greek Parliament. It seemed as though people rather be tolerant of the views of the others, than become openly hostile when those views challenge those held by others.
And so we come to Guyana. There are bound to be a variety of ideas, many running counter to the other. This would provoke heckling, the extent of which could see anger flaring to levels that should not be tolerated in the National Assembly.
For example, Dr Cheddi Jagan, on one occasion became so incensed that he hurled the mace from its base and walked out of the House. That action caused him to be banned from addressing the House until he apologised. For a long time he refused and therefore could not speak in the Parliament Chambers. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, to whom the late Dr Jagan appealed, supported the action of the then Speaker Sase Naraine.
The National Assembly might highlight just how far the lack of respect has slipped. Perhaps one needs to look at the home where everything begins. In many homes parents show little respect for children and children in turn disrespect them. This is transferred to the school where these days disrespect is the order of the day.
It is this disrespect that has led to increasing violence in schools, to teachers being assaulted (something unheard of a few decades ago), to children using the vilest language in the presence of teachers and to policemen exacting violence on very young people who happen to be caught up in some unsavoury or criminal act.
But despite the spate of disrespect there is always the tenet that one should respect the office if not the individual. It is not that this is automatic because some holders of office exhibit blatant disrespect for people and the very office they hold. In this case the office is belittled and disrespect is often not frowned on in such cases.
But there are cases where for one reason or the other people may dislike the holder of an office and would take every chance to be abusive to that person. This is something that should not be tolerated or allowed. Perhaps the small size of the society allows some of us to get too close to the holders of top offices and we therefore abuse this privilege. There was a classic case on Sunday at the forum for the late Dr Walter Rodney.
A leading Government functionary was there as were many other people. One individual, who later said that he has no respect for the government functionary, was markedly hostile.
To his credit, the holder of the high office appears to be someone who suffers fools. The unfortunate thing was that there were people who declined to intervene. They too should accept blame for the decline in decency.
More often than not, things that help hold the society together fall by the wayside and society is the worse for that development. Yet there are those in a position to help regain the days of standards. Sunday’s unsavoury incident should never have happened and steps should be taken to ensure that there is no repeat.

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