Latest update June 4th, 2026 12:30 AM
Stringent dress codes for visitors should be abolished
Dear Editor,
It is high time that the dress code/rules for visitors to public offices, including RDC compounds be reexamined. Upon remigrating to Guyana in 2014 after 25 years overseas, it was a culture shock for me to confront ubiquitous sign boards at schools and government offices with far-fetched and tasteless dress code requirements for entering and be served. Many residents, some travelling long distances are turned away by security guards without being attended to.
Codes/rules like no slippers, no short pants, no jerseys, no T-Shirt with slogan and art, among other requirements are being enforced without discretion. Recently, the President was on TV saying that such practices are “archaic and backward.” Do we need the President to micromanage and tell us everything that needs changing?
Just this week a motorist struck down two young scouts after she was likely in road rage after being refused to register a student because of her attire.
Why can’t reason and good sense prevail in admitting and serving people? It is in bad taste to display such codes and bad judgment to turn away people due to subjective evaluation? If a t-shirt or other garment has a slogan that is not subversive or vulgar it should be acceptable.
Slippers and short pants midyear in a tropical country should be similarly permitted. The deportment and behavior of a person is more important than their attire. Mind you, we are not talking about the workers, but visitors who are as Mohandas K. Gandhi said, “We are dependent on…and the purpose of it (our work)…and part of it … and who is giving us an opportunity to serve”. Are we aware of our roles and responsibilities or are visitors being turned away to lighten work load? I hope not.
Poor people travel long distances for assistance only to be turned away by untrained, insensitive security guards at the gates. (some are not turned away depending on who they are there to see or how they look physically, among other subjective factors, causing double standards). How can a modern society accept this travesty? No colour should be too bright to become unacceptable; no artwork on a garment should be unacceptable; they are graphic freedoms of expression.
More people travel abroad nowadays and TVs proliferate, yet we seem to be ignorant of what pertains outside of Guyana. Drastic changes are needed in the way we provide customer service and relate to the public; these codes/requirements should be torn down and replaced by hospitality.
Editor, in this day and age we need transformational leaders who can make differences and leave legacies; pioneers, trailblazers and pathfinders; not copycats without vision who frustrate our residents and do little too late in air-conditioned offices.
Karan Chand
Region 2 Resident
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You must not deprive these jobs-worth ‘officials’ of their main excuse for disregarding more major infractions.
After all they must be able to claim that they were dealing with these criminally dressed (can one be criminally dressed? – discuss) individuals to attend to the good persons breaking in or setting fire to the back of the building.