We are a disgrace and a disappointment to our ancestors with our passivity

Nov 24, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

On Tuesday afternoon, November 12, I visited Republic Bank Diamond Branch to do a transaction. The Bank had informed its customers of its intention to improve services. Something went wrong. Workers whose salaries normally went through the Bank were paid in cheques. I had heard that the line to change cheques and other transactions were hitting the entrance door for days prior to Tuesday, so I had hoped that Tuesday would have been different, but no such luck. As soon as I entered the Bank, I was in a crowd. Immediately, l realised that the line had hit the door again. Seconds later, a lady came in and boldly inquired, “Who is the last person in the line”. A man identified himself and I chimed in, “Ok! I am behind you ma’am”. I had lost a place because I was ignorant of the method used to maintain the line without going through the door. The line was moving at a snail’s pace because the management of the Bank did not see the need to have more than two tellers, whilst there was space for 5. Occasionally a third teller would join in – work two customers from the line then call a name and someone who had been standing listlessly out of the line would be attended to.
A customer came through the door, saying that he just left a Branch (of the Bank) in GT hoping the line won’t be so long here (at Diamond).
I had no intention of enduring the ordeal to reach the counter. I decided to stick around and observe. The Bank workers went about their jobs normally. They seemed oblivious of the people in the line. It was just another day at the office for them!
I began to reminisce. I have been around since the 1940’s. Mind you! In the archives of the annals of our history. I have read about the pro-activism of the sons and daughters of slaves and Indentureship, locked in struggle against their colonial masters-aided and abetted by the political class. Struggling to attain a better way of life for themselves and their future generations. Industrial strikes and protest ruled the roost in those days.
After independence, the torch had changed hands and the masses failed to recognise the new enemy – the Governing elite. The sacred walls of trade unionism that were supported to champion the cause of the working class in the colonial era were slowly being torn down by the said hands that had helped to build it- the political class.
From independence to now, slowly that will to struggle against what is not right and fair to us has been squeezed out of the masses. This is evident by the fact that we no longer have a ‘Ministry of Labour’. Contract labour had been foisted up the working class, taking away their right to be represented by Unions. Was there an uproar from the masses for that? I don’t recall! Our passivity to the asininities that are now meted out to us from the Govt and Private Sector has reduced us to the status of debris on the beach being tossed by the waves.
The coolness and serenity in which the people in the line conducted themselves proves that this generation has lost their voices and their will to struggle against what is unfair and unjust to them.
We have to stop disgracing and disappointing our ancestors with our passivity.
Rudolph Singh

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