STOP STIFLING YOUR CONSCIENCE!

Jun 16, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

In one part of the city a woman was speaking deliberately loud enough for passersby to hear. She was bragging that since the new government took power, the police are as straight as an arrow, that they were now doing their jobs how it is supposed to be done.
In another part of the city, in fact right oppose Camp Ayanganna, two traffic policemen were standing under a tree. A white car with a police flasher light on its roof was parked nearby.
The police were lying in wait for motorists who were breaching the ‘unrealistic’ speed limit on that particular roadway. They were facing the oncoming traffic and therefore everything north-bound was in their view.
A motorcyclist, riding a CG motorcycle, was proceeding north. He did not have on his helmet as is required by the law. When he saw the police he gave a little wobble on his motorbike and proceeded forward. The police made no attempt to stop him or to intercept him. But they began to pull over another vehicle which they must have felt was driving above the speed limit.
The people of Guyana can believe all they want about how much things have changed in Guyana since the new government took power. They can stifle their consciences to the extent that they please since it is theirs to stifle. But that is not going to change anything in this country.
Political loyalties are forcing people to stifle their consciences and to try to convince themselves that things have changed in the country and everything now is going smoothly. It is even said that since the removal of the last government that drugs are not passing through the airports any more.
Well, drugs were intercepted recently as they have been for years. But people want to convince themselves that things are straight as an arrow under the APNU+AFC. They are blinding themselves to the shortcoming of the government and this will only encourage the sort of conduct that has opened the government to criticisms from non- supporters.
Nothing is going to change in Guyana unless people change their attitude towards the party they support. It is one thing to want to oppose the party you did not vote for.
It is another thing to pretend that the party you support has not and is not making mistakes. This was the downfall of the PPP. Its supporters, including the delegates at its last Congress did not speak out.
The police may be seemingly solving a lot of crimes. But explain how a mere change in government could have achieved this. Things do not change with the click of a finger or the mere change in government. That change in government has to be accompanied by changes in the way things are done.
We are told that crime figures are down. But whose figures are these? And has there been any independent audit of these figures. This is needed to convince a suspecting public that indeed what is claimed is reality.
If people want change they should not let their political loyalties blind them to what is taking place or censure them from speaking out against what is clearly wrong.
No one is asking anyone to give up their support for any party. No one is asking anyone to switch political loyalties. The most loyal supporters are those who are able to frankly, but respectfully, tell their leaders when things are going astray.
Voting in Guyana is dominated by ethnic preferences. So what does it matter if you criticize your leaders? People will still continue to vote mainly along ethnic lines.
What does it matter if criticism of the government makes the government appear as if they not being better than when the opposition was in power? Since when does the performance of the government a major factor in how people vote in elections in Guyana?
Change has to begin with the people. People are going to end up losing if they do not take a step backward and carefully look at what the government is doing and decide whether it is good or bad, without any reference to whether their opinion will lend support to the opposition.
If people really want change, they need to hold their leaders accountable.

1 thoughts on “STOP STIFLING YOUR CONSCIENCE!”

Emile_Mervin June 16, 2016 at 7:26 am

The last paragraph of the column pretty much sums up the view of many, including those who supported and still support the Coalition. It is just pathetic that some of our fellow supporters of the Coalition just cannot get over their blind loyalty and accept that there are differences of opinion among members under the broad tent, and so they tend to attack and lash out at anyone, especially Coalition supporters, who openly criticize the Coalition under the banner of holding elected leaders’ feet to the fire.