This is not the way Minister Ramjattan should behave

Aug 27, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
Guyana is going through a very serious time in our short existence as a nation. The seriousness of death cannot be stressed in real words. The loss of lives of our citizens due to the epidemic of suicide is eating-away at the core of our society. We will be hard pressed to find someone who has not experienced the loss of a love one, the loss of a friend or the loss of a neighbour to the cold vicious hands of suicide in our dear country.
Despite the epidemic of suicide in our dear Guyana, the politicians of Guyana have been behind the wall, locked away in their own “callous” world for too long. Our elected government officials have shown very little interest to none in this grave matter. Many individuals and organizations are in the forefront of trying to address and find solutions to this national problem. And I do say national problem, because suicide affects everyone; directly or indirectly. Suicide is not only the loss of a life, but goes deeper and has far reaching impacts. The consequences of suicide are not only that one person is dead; it’s also a tragedy for the people left behind that goes on for many, many years.
Dear Editor, recently there was a motion, tabled by the Opposition Party on curbing the rise of Suicide. From published reports the motion was literally “shot” down; see KN article “Opposition loses motion on curbing rise of suicide rate” August 5th, 2016. As reported, the Opposition MP Dr. Vindhya Persaud who expounded on the effects with statistics and figures to demonstrate the seriousness of the problem to the Members of Parliament from both sides of the aisle. So far, so good it seems…..This was certainly a very noble gesture, raising the awareness of suicide in Guyana.
The published response of the representative of the Government clearly highlightened the “closed-mindedness” of our elected leaders. Here we have a very serious matter being “debated”, but the response of the Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, as quoted, ‘Ramjattan said that the Opposition never saw it fit to do many of the things it proposed in its motion. In fact, the Public Security Minister saw the PPP’s motion as an attempt to steal Government’s thunder, since it included several of the initiatives already being embarked on by Government ministries.” This is statement, in itself, demonstrated a very narrow-minded pronouncement by an elected official.
The fact that nothing was done “yesterday or yesteryear” on this serious matter, is beside the point. The day the motion was tabled; it was and should have been viewed as a new beginning for our elected officials to show the needed maturity. The maturity of working together, showing true bipartisanship to tackle and help solving this epidemic. Instead, we witnessed the usual “childishness” that will surely result in many, many more of our people taking their own lives.
Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, went on to say that “They want to steal our thunder with this motion, and come and pontificate as though they are the genuine Popes and Bishops of the issue and they are not” For Pete sake, is this what we elected our government officials to do. We could have gotten a more mature response from pupils from any secondary school in the country. People’s lives are being lost, a lost that could be reduced, but this is the best out elected officials can come up with. Sad, very sad indeed!
The Guyanese citizens have had their fill of this kind of rhetoric from our officials. May 2015 marked a new chapter in the Guyanese people’s expectations of really “getting their monies worth” from their elected officials. Dear editor, with the continued lack of insight and pettifogging, demonstrated by our elected officials, Guyana will surely be stuck in the age of backwardness. Guyana will not advance into the 21st century if our elected officials continue down this path.
Muhammad Raoof

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