Carnival of Corruption amid preparation for 50 years of what?

Lomarsh Roopnarine

There is little doubt that a new government needs time to adjust to the realities of good governance. To this thought, I agree, especially in light of the fact that many government ministers do not have the much needed skills and experience to perform or to carry out their assigned responsibilities effectively and efficiently.

Many of them were not expected to be at the helm but years of out-migration have left a vacuum that can be only filled by loyalists rather that by leading lights. We have therefore come to rely on their goodwill and good manners for good leadership. I am sympathetic to this approach towards leadership insofar as there are progressive signs of development.

That said, the public is growing impatient with the failure of the current regime to deliver on campaign promises. We know now that manipulative pledges for change were made in an attempt to bamboozle the public for votes. It worked but for the past ten months we have seen a water-thin majority in government struggling to deliver at the most basic level. The entire nation is at a standstill while ministers are all over the place with little or no internal coordination. The consequence is that there are limited responses from the government on controversial issues and the public is at a loss as to what is going on. Is this incompetence or a lack of transparency?

What is known, however, is that there are growing reckless behaviour and rancorous statements from our government ministers. Every day, every week, every month, there have been some bizarre behaviour from our leaders which have parachuted the nation into a state of depression, despair and distrust, even with die-hard supporters of the current regime. If you do not believe me, revisit the results of the popular votes from the last Local Government Elections as well as headlines in the local newspapers.

Did you have the time to listen to Raphael Trotman’s 15-minute speech at Bartica? I did and I can say it sounds like this: full of rhetoric, desperation and outcry intermixed with religious fanaticism for Barticans to stay with the current regime no matter what.

Trotman also mentioned what can be described as a Granger-Trotman meeting in Nassau, The Bahamas, but on quickly recollecting his thoughts he suspended the discussion and rambled on to something else. There is something fishy here folks but we will never know, let me repeat, never know.

For the month of April so far, there are two events from our ministers that reveal not only corruption and malfeasance but a total lack of regard for the public and for humanity. Actually, one event is an insult to humanity, that is, the reckless statement made by Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence in an attempt to shield an APNU/AFC candidate accused of child molestation as a family matter.

How more insensitive and cruel can this person be toward the protection of our children? Her brazen statement smacks at the core of child care and protection. What are her values? How and what processes and methods were used to evaluate and elevate her to one of the most sensitive administrative positions in government.

In any state in the US, she would have been gone a long time. See you later, sister. But, as I have always said, anything goes in Guyana. I truly believe that Guyana can be one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Worse still is that the late and former psychologist and Minister of Public Service in the PNC administration Faith Harding would have been disappointed that her life-time of efforts to protect the innocent went needlessly in vain.

Harding was a rarity in the PNC administration. She had a soul. She was decent. Harding would have told Minister Lawrence this: Sweetheart, step down, it is the right thing to do.

The other April event is the Harmon-Tiwari fiasco. Anytime I write about Minister Joe Harmon I laugh. He never ceases to surprise. Whenever he says something on some serious issues in public he is most likely to retract it.

His recent declaration that employing and rewarding party supporters and donors is fine is ridiculous. I may have to call my colleague the mighty chalk dust, Professor Hollis Liverpool, to sing a calypso on Joe Harmon.

Satire apart, the President remains cool, calm and collective, but his inaction on his ministers’ cryptic behaviour is, oh well, you guess it. (lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu)