This country has lost its conscience; does it want to reclaim it

Jul 16, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

“Surely, you’re not saying
We have the resources
To save the poor from their lot
There will be poor always
Pathetically struggling”
(The words of Jesus, speaking to Judas and Mary Magdalene,
From the song, ‘Everything’s Alright’ from the musical
Jesus Christ Superstar

The cries of joy reverberated all over this country when the news arrived on May 14 that the PPP Government of twenty-three years was defeated in the May 11 general elections. People shed tears in the streets. The celebrations were chaotic. On Orange Walk, the festivities blocked the street and I was caught in it. Motorists finally got through after twenty minutes’ wait.
The reason for the euphoria was the desire to be free after long nights of ethnic discrimination, corruption, police violations, grinding poverty and social breakdown under the PPP, particularly, Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar. But was this longing a misplaced one? Did we really want to see a country where people were treated equally and justice was given to the citizenry without bias or class favour?
The PPP is gone. I doubt whether the evolving demographic configurations will ever allow for a constant electoral victory for the PPP through the blind voting of East Indians and Amerindians.
My analytical mind tells me that Guyana has seen the last of PPP’s hegemony. But even if we see a long period of positive and satisfactory governance, will Guyana be a country where a conscience can easily be invoked in service of the poor and powerless?
My wife, for a woman married to a man whose entire life has been taken over by social activism, doesn’t talk politics with me. Some people just don’t like a public life and they go about their life living and enjoying it far away from the glare of others. That is my wife.
I took her to see the ambience of the new shopping complex the next day after the official opening. The mall is near to where we live.
As we drove out of the road where the shopping complex is onto the Railway Embankment, she just nonchalantly said, “That pole is going to fall.” And she moved on to another topic. The thing she was referring to was a rotten GPL pole that stood there at the entrance to the mall. It has been there for years.
Very strangely, the very next day two GPL trucks with nuff employees were there removing the old structure and they planted a new one and reset the electrical wires. The very next day, schools of workers painted a pedestrian-crossing sign on the Railway Embankment in front of the road that leads to the mall.
There was nothing improper in what I saw. The pole should have been replaced. The pedestrian sign should have been done. But it is the nature of this country that that has disappointed me all my life.
If a soldier or a policeman that served the nation for over forty years and had endangered his life for this land had made a call to GPL about a rotting poll near his house, he would have been ignored. Let any school head in South Georgetown call to have a pedestrian-crossing sign painted in front of the school and the relevant authorities would ignore them. But let the caller be the Head of Queen’s College, the crew would be there before the blink of an eye.
This column was motivated by what I read in the newspaper right this minute.
After reading it, I immediately went on the keyboard and penned this column. A young man spent twenty months on remand for being in possession of stolen items.
The magistrate sentenced him to six months to be served in addition to the twenty months he had already endured.
A former Minister of the Public Service, Jennifer Westford, was investigated for selling public property under circumstances that needed police inquiries.
The items were expensive cars. The actual receipts were published in the newspapers. To date, with all the paper trail for all to see, this Minister has not been charged.
Times like these I remember the former Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis. I asked Laurie why he didn’t charge that rich young man that killed Monica Reece. Laurie said there wasn’t sufficient evidence. Laurie didn’t charge because of the status of the young man.
If it was the work of a jealous boyfriend from West Ruimveldt, Laurie would have had him before one of our punitively driven magistrates the very next day.
Who says Guyana has the resources to save the poor from their lot?