Culpability, hypocrisy and Minister Manickchand’s resignation

Oct 09, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There can be no doubt that the Ministry of Social Services officers did not use meticulousness in monitoring the domestic irregularities that enveloped Neesa Gopaul. Minister Manickchand, with supersonic speed has denounced the failings of her officers. There are calls for discipline. One hopes that those who are advocating sanctions against these employees are aware that since time immemorial, the morally correct thing is for the final authority to resign. That is a high moral tradition in public life.
When subordinate officers are guilty of horrible lapses that result in tragedies, the subject Minister must do the ethically correct act and depart. I hope we see the resignation of the subject Minister as soon as possible.
The fear of this writer is that the officers of Ms. Manickchand’s Ministry that failed the dead girl will be sacrificed on the altar of politics. It would be regrettable if this immense tragedy is used by the Government of Guyana powerhouses to retrieve some credibility. One caveat is necessary – if people are incompetent, they should be disciplined, but it is immoral for their incompetent political superiors to use such a situation to mask their own ineptitude.
All around Guyana we see the circumstances that have led to the death of Neesa Gopaul and in a majority of those episodes, political raggedness of the lowest kind was involved. Sheema Mangar lost her life when a thief stole her Blackberry then ran her over with his car. The area was pitch dark. There were no street lights. Her mother implied that if there were lamps at that particular junction, the killer may have been deterred.
Why aren’t people asking for sanctions against the subject Minister? His Ministry should ensure that Guyana in the 21st century has street lights. What appalling asininity that a government in the 21st century says it wants to give poor families a laptop each and over ninety percent of the capital is without street lamps.
Two men have been killed in identical fashion on separate occasions on the long stretch of seawall. There hasn’t been any forensic application to see if we have a serial killer on our hands. We feel hurt at what happened to Neesa Gopaul. But there are hundreds of grieving parents whose children have either died or been badly injured because of the lack of police alertness.
Why has there been no resignation from the Police Commissioner or the Minister of Home Affairs?
The young lady that was stabbed to death one evening outside Stabroek Market made constant complaints to the police about threats made against her by the very person who killed her. Little children die unnecessarily because of medical incompetence at public hospitals.
This writer reported on a collapsed bridge covered with asphalt on the UG Access Road just yards past the Gafoors’ gated community going south. A minibus driver going at a fast rate, swung away from it, and crashed into a family. The face of the daughter, an 18-year-old UG economics major, was badly damaged and her father is still walking on crutches.
This was twenty months ago. After my article, road personnel from the Ministry of Works came and added insult to injury. They threw some cement in the hole. The stuff just went into the trench below. The bridge has died and it has to be replaced. But the oligarchs that rule over a nation of sheep will only act when another 18-year-old loses her life. Drivers (including this writer) are still dodging this hole. So far, there has been no ministerial resignation. Drivers should not make a right turn from the Atlantic seawall into Conversation Tree road, death is waiting there. Go see it for yourself! When a mother and child drive into the trench and die, then rails to border the trench will go up.
So the social work personnel of the Ministry of Social Services failed on many occasions to return to Neesa Gopaul’s home. Did they have vehicles to take them? Is the Minister willing to invite the press to examine the vehicle inventory to see how many cars the social workers have at their disposal?
Do the Guyanese people know that a priceless institution that upholds the rule of law in Guyana, the Marshall’s office, does not have a vehicle? Not even one. Here is one of the reasons why the rule of law is in tatters. If we are going to call for punitive measures against those officers in the Gopaul case, then moral fairness demands that we also insist on the resignation of the Government.

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Culpability, hypocrisy and Minister Manickchand’s resignation

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