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Towards peace and reverence for life

May 06, 2015 Editorial

Guyana has unfortunately become a society in which the murder of females and domestic violence against women in general are common place and the authorities seem unduly relaxed and unperturbed.
The alarming rate of spousal murders demand the full attention of the Government but this has not been the case. Worse, it has not even been a serious topic of discussion by either political party in the election.
How many more women have to be murdered before a plan is presented to address what is clearly a national crisis? Action is needed and must be taken now by all to eliminate these senseless acts. We have to go back to being a people of love, respect, strong values, and of service to one another, community and country.
So many things need to change. Primary among them is inappropriate behaviour by those in public office. This has to be condemned; it cannot be overlooked or even tolerated. The responses have for the most part seemed hesitant and amount to nothing more than platitudes.
The Opposition is always poised to pounce on such vulgar and crude behaviour, particularly by Ministers and other elected officials, with strong words of condemnation anchored in a narrative that as the Head of State, the President is either incompetent or does not care about the unethical or immoral behavior of his ministers and other senior party public officials.
However, some may want to counter that the strident denunciation by the opposition is motivated by self-interest that if overused, becomes too melodramatic to be taken seriously.
Except for the diehard supporters who tend to believe anything their respective party says, the public has always reacted with disgust and increasing cynicism whenever a woman is murdered by her husband or boyfriend. The statistics are alarming.
In the first four months of this year, there have been an unfortunate cluster of spousal murders, of which six of the 11 women killed were victims of repeated domestic violence.
These are truly challenging times. The country is at a stalemate in so many ways that it will take a very long time before anyone could see a reduction in this scourge.
However, there is a tremendous obligation on behalf of the political leaders to find a way to help women avoid the dangers that society has essentially placed them in, and also for all of us to work towards a culture of peace, love and reverence for life.
With respect to murder and crime in general, the people are facing an uphill task of trying to cope with the brutality and the waste of life and to haul the society back from the precipice.
There are reasons too numerous to mention for much of this disregard for life which some believe has been influenced by an indecent, uncaring and unloving society.
It seems as though history has collided with the severe socio-economic and political challenges, including demographic shifts; senseless murders, high unemployment among youths, massive poverty, prevalence and misuse of the state resources; and the adoption of norms that are out of sync with our realities.
Solutions to this malaise cannot come from speeches, sermons, promises, and press releases alone, nor will it come from politicizing murder and mayhem in the country.
Not one or two individuals, but everyone, including the independent media, is responsible to pressure those in authority to act to end such disorder and lawlessness in our society, and they must be held responsible for their action or inaction.
If ever there was a time for a bipartisan approach to problem-solving in terms of crime, especially domestic violence and the killing of women, it is now.

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