President Granger has to know what moral obligation is

Jul 18, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

President Granger, in my opinion has got tangled up in serious moral and intellectual dilemmas that if he does not extricate himself in the immediate future he can damage his nationally admired credibility. I will not be impertinent to the President to offer him a lecture on what moral responsibility is. I honestly admire Mr. Granger and believe most sincerely that he has a plausible understanding of what is moral responsibility given the fact that he is an intellectual who has authored many books on the social sphere in Guyana

Every day in this world we see the power of moral obligation with the latest being the resignation of David Cameron as Britain’s Prime Minister over Brexit. Mr. Cameron did not have to resign. There was nothing in the referendum’s terms of reference or nothing in UK laws that could have made Mr. Cameron resign. But moral obligation caused him to demit office. As Prime Minister of his country, he led the campaign against Brexit. He lost the vote to get the UK to remain in the EU. For Cameron, it was morally untenable to remain as Head of his subjects when those subjects rejected an open desire he put on the table.

Moral responsibility as adumbrated by the great philosophers, especially Immanuel Kant, and to a lesser example John Locke, in my opinion, holds civilization together. The greatest moral thread that reinforces the ethical stability of society is recognition of the principle of conflict of interest. A human will not sit as chairperson on a search committee when his/her child is an applicant. A Minister will not deliberate on a tender when his/her child is one of the bidders. A Judge will not preside over a trial when his/her nephew is the number one accused.

The recognition of conflict of interest is society’s acknowledgement of moral obligation. Sadly for Guyana, many aspects of moral obligations went out the window the past fifty years and the reign of the PPP from 1992 further devastated the moral ramparts of this nation. In 1976 the Declaration of Sophia enunciated the role of the PNC as the vanguard party and created the concept of the Paramouncy of the Party thus making the State subordinate to the party.

When he was Premier of Guyana in the beginning of the sixties, Cheddi Jagan weakened the role of moral obligation of a government to its people when he de-professionalised the civil service by taking a party supporter and making him a Permanent Secretary, thus destroying the neutrality of the civil service. The same Jagan took his personal tailor and made him Head of the state-owned Guyana Electricity Corporation. The same Jagan when he became Head of Guyana again in the nineties put his chauffeur on the Board for the Coop Bank. We come now to President Granger

The President said his government will not micro-manage the City Council. And clarified what was meant by the review of the parking meter venture. He said it was to determine if there was any fraudulent impropriety. The President is on almost perfect ground when he said his government cannot and will not micro-manage the City Hall administration. But he did not mention the obligation he has to Guyanese to criticize and castigate the leadership of his party when as administrators they engage in misrule. In the concept of moral obligation the President does not have room to manoeuvre. Ninety percent of the councillors are from the party of which he is head. The Mayor is a long standing member of Mr. Granger’s party. Head of the City’s Finance Committee is Mr. Granger’s General-Secretary, Mr. Oscar Clark.

If the City Council misbehaves, President Granger has the moral responsibility to Georgetowners to discipline his party people. He leads them. The Mayor and many PNC Councillors are not into good governance. It would have been different if it weren’t his party people in charge of Georgetown. The parking meter issue is a scandal. There was no tender. The Town Clerk said tendering was unnecessary because they couldn’t get a better deal. This is not only business naivety but maybe also a lack of commonsense. The scandal has its facetious side – what do the Mayor, Oscar Clark and Royston King know about the technical side of things that they found themselves in Mexico?

Did the President hear the explanations? The Mayor said she found it out of place that someone could use Google to search for the credentials of a company. Oscar Clark belted out the tune – “I is like Joe Harmon, I gat no apology to make.” I heard Joe was livid when he heard that song.

2 thoughts on “President Granger has to know what moral obligation is”

george wiltshire July 18, 2016 at 5:08 am

While I am of the view that there may be a place for the parking meter. I do agree with you that there is a right way. I am glad that there are those who are prepared to keep their feet to the fire. I believe in prayer.. Look at what will happen 21 days from now,

Between now and the 8th of August,
RLSG July 18, 2016 at 5:11 pm

Let us wait and see if Mr. Granger will live up to the great expectations that everyone hopes of him.