Latest update November 1st, 2026 10:45 AM
Buy de book, drive pun de road
(Kaieteur News) – Dem boys hear de police investigating how people getting drivers’ licences in Guyana. Well, dem boys seh, welcome to de roadshow—because if dem boys had to give out prizes for creative ways to pass a driving test without actually passing a driving test, Guyana woulda had a gold medal long time.
In Guyana, when somebody driving like he just discover that a steering wheel could turn, dem boys does look at he and seh, “De man buy he book!”
And everybody know exactly what that mean.
It mean de man didn’t learn to drive. He didn’t master parallel parking. He didn’t understand that a red light does mean stop and not “accelerate before the light change.” He didn’t learn that pedestrians have a strange habit of wanting to cross the road while vehicles moving.
He simply buy he book. And according to what dem boys been hearing for years, some people paying as much as $150,000 to get a licence. Dem boys don’t know if that figure include VAT.
But now that the police investigating the issuance of drivers’ licences, dem boys want to make one small suggestion.
Don’t only investigate who gave out the book. Investigate who bought the book. Because if somebody paid money to obtain a license without meeting the requirements, that person wasn’t just a victim of corruption. That person was a willing customer.
And that customer subsequently got behind the wheel of a motorcar.
That is where the story stop being about corruption and start becoming about public safety. Because a bribe paid for a building permit might produce a crooked building. A bribe paid for a business licence might produce a crooked business. But a bribe paid for a driver’s licence could produce a crooked driver coming straight at you at 80 kilometres per hour.
And dem boys don’t want to meet that man on Sheriff Street.
Maybe it is time to take driver certification out of the hands of the police and establish an independent system of private, professionally regulated certifying officers or testing centres, operating under strict government standards and subject to audits.
The police should police. The people who certify whether somebody can drive should certify whether somebody can drive.
Talk half. Leff half.
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