LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Sep 18, 2017 Editorial

It appears that the government has a fascination with inquiries and tribunals. It also adores reports and investigations, especially by foreigners. Indeed, Guyana’s history is littered with Commissions of Inquiry (COI) and investigations which date back to the colonial era.
In the past two years, the government has had more than a dozen COIs, and while most of the COIs were needed in order to determine cause and effect, many are stored on shelves or are covered with cobweb and dust.
In a country with highly qualified, experienced and talented individuals, we are actually paying foreigners to determine the causes of poverty, crime, unemployment, our housing needs and what leads young people to deviancy, among others.
In most, if not all instances, the findings of these various social studies have resulted in little more than public debate, huge pay cheques for those hired to conduct the studies and are stored away in a cabinet somewhere.
As far back as 1938, the socio-economic conditions in the British territories in the Caribbean were so horrible that they prompted the British Government to appoint Lord Moyne to investigate and make recommendations on how to improve the conditions of the poor in the region. Known as the Moyne Commission, the report was highly critical of the awful conditions under which people, especially the poor of then British Guiana lived.
The report also pointed to the deficiencies in the education system, the economic and social problems caused by unemployment and some of the root causes of juvenile delinquency. It also sharply criticized the poor health conditions at the public hospitals and expressed concern over the high infant mortality rate.
While many of the recommendations were aimed at alleviating the poor conditions in the health and education sectors and improve the lives of the poor, yet not much has been done since then. Almost a century later, our infant mortality rate remains one of the highest in the hemisphere and people are still dying from non-communicable diseases which suggests that our health care system is still in very poor shape.
And even though there has been some improvement in education, much more needs to be done to lower the high drop-out rates of students, especially boys and to reduce failures among them. Today, the streets have become home to hundreds of homeless people while many others are living in appalling conditions.
There is no need for us to repeat the details related to the necessity for the strengthening of our porous borders where activities such as illegal drugs, firearms and the trafficking of persons take place on a regular basis. This has been the situation for decades but it seems that those in authority are oblivious to the illegalities that transpire on our borders.
However, there has always been finger-pointing by the opposition whenever the country is faced with some adversity, be it natural or man-made disasters. For example, in the wake of the Camp Street Prison riots, last year and this year and in the aftermath of the recent floods, the opposition was relentless in its criticisms of the government.
Despite the several COI commissioned by the government, we must ask ourselves if we really need them to determine the causes of poverty, why youths are turning to a life of crime and why it is so difficult for young people to find employment or become decent law abiding citizens?
Lest we forget, a famous philosopher once said: “What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.” So some of the problems the nation is faced with today, crime, poverty, child abuse or corruption, they are nothing new.
They have happened before, but quantity might make it more or less, but not new. That said, those in authority must act decisively to solve the nation’s problems and improve the lives of the people. We must learn from past experiences.