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A crisis of morality

Sep 20, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

I ran into an old friend yesterday. We began to chat about local politics.
I asked him whether he thought that the government was unconstitutional. He replied, “Yes, but with an explanation.”
I asked him about the explanation. He said that while the government was unconstitutional, it was not illegal.
When someone speaks that sort of nonsense you know that they are either an idiot or blinded by prejudice. My friend is no idiot but it seems that in trying to take sides in the present crisis in Guyana, he has lost all sense of reason.
I asked him whether he believed in fair play. He admitted that he did.
I then suggested to him that since December 21st the government was not playing by the rules. I indicated that following the no-confidence motion, the government did everything in its power to not hold elections within the three months period. It used every conceivable trick in the book to not abide by the Constitution.
I asked him whether that could be considered fair play. He said it could once no laws were broken.
So there we have it! A new definition of fair play. Once no laws are broken, it is fair play. Forget about trying to gain an unfair advantage. That is no longer considered as fair play.
But as we know laws were broken. The highest law of the land which prescribed that the Cabinet should resign was not honored and the provision that elections should have been held by March 21, 2019 was simply cast aside.
A government which does not play by the rules cannot be expected to act fairly when dealing with others. It’s asking too much of any government which is cunning and practices trickery to turn around and be fair in governing the country.

If citizens look aside when their government violates the Constitution, then they may be inclined to also look away when the government treats others unfairly.
But that is not the only tragedy which faces the country. You have to understand the effect that there are tens of thousands of Guyanese who are so blinded by racial and political prejudices that they would defend wrongdoing and unfair practices by governments.
Yet these persons will look at their children in the eyes and lecture them about the importance of playing the rules.
It is not surprising that we have a bunch of morally confused young people running around this country. Morality loses its value when they see the contradiction being practiced by adults.
Young people look up to their parents. Most of their early heroes in life are their parents. Many of them idolize their parents. It is no wonder therefore that when they are told, on the one hand, that they should be honest and fair, and then they see their parents defending political wrongdoing, these young people become confused.
And the danger is that they are confused because they cannot settle on the values which they should support. They are told to be honest but they see their parents defending dishonest political acts.
Politics is about the exercise of power. And politics should be government by the same values which people want their children to support. Politics should be based on fair play. But we know that it is not always so.
A crisis of morality exists in our society. We proclaim one set of values and then turn around and support the very opposite.
Guyana is going to have an election next year. And one of the main concerns is whether the political parties are going to play by the rules. But there is now an even greater concern about whether the Guyana Elections Commission itself is going to play by the rules.

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