The talk – and sneers! – about “corruption” can’t be escaped in Guyana nowadays. But it’s always been there, no?? When the Scottish planters gave contracts only to Liverpool merchants for their goods, wasn’t that corruption?? So, dear reader, you say other folks didn’t have merchants in the beginning? Well, how did THAT situation come about??! One thing about this thing called “capitalism” is it comes with its own morality – with money as its god, and making it as the reason for man’s existence. By any means necessary.
Even carbuncled Karl Marx – who railed against its monstrous tentacles – admitted it was the most efficient system ever invented to produce more and more of whatever we wanted -for less and less!! So, the item you’re selling is defective…do you tell this to the buyer? Hell, no!! Caveat emptor’s the rule – buyer beware!! But what about things BEFORE capitalism?? Were folks a bunch of angels flitting around with halos hovering over their heads? Hell, no!! Using people as serfs and slaves to work their land isn’t corruption – plus having the seignorial “right” to bed their wives and daughters??
In disgust, the philosopher Kant conceded that we’re all created “out of this crooked timber”. It’s a good analogy – from within, none of us are “straight” – and we all have a price. The sooner we concede this the sooner we’ll be able to deal with corruption. We’ll have to accept that any politician who denies there’s corruption at all levels of Government is either a fool or a vagabond. With all the slings against Jagdeo, he admitted there’s corruption in the Government! He just thinks it ain’t as prevalent as the Opposition trumpets.
So wha’d we do?? As Civil Society, we gotta get our act together and investigate claims of corruption, and get “smoking gun’ evidence to take the perpetrators to court!! It can be done!! Guyana’s a small place, and we Guyanese just loooove to talk. Shouldn’t be too difficult to pin down some of the rumours, should it?? Problem is that sometimes we like to talk too much sh*t!!! And we don’t put our money where our mouths are!!
So, what should the Government leaders do?? Well, we can take a few leaves from the Chinese and start EXECUTING some big ones who’re caught with their hands in the cookie jar!! And trust this Eyewitness – this will have a most salutary effect on one and all – including those presently in the spotlight – friends and family and the po-lice!!
And secondly, another low hanging fruit is if officials’ assets exceed their income flow, let THEM have to show the courts where they got the money!! And thirdly, how do we deal with leaders who ignore declaration of assets??
…political corruption
But folks aren’t corrupt only in business, are they?? In fact, there’s a lot of hypocrisy about corruption by only focusing from that angle. What about Burnham’s corruption in rigging elections from 1968 to 1985?? To accomplish that feat, didn’t the PNC corrupt thousands – and generations – of Guyanese to steal the votes of their fellow citizens?? Didn’t this corruption become a way of life?? Does anyone think the corruption could be compartmentalized so it doesn’t spill over into every other aspect of life??
Folks talking about police corruption. Wasn’t it corruption when all those policemen seized “banned” goods and only returned them for “services” from women?? What about the bribes for every service by the Public Service (!!) – like getting birth certificates!??! Isn’t that when petty corruption joined with corruption at the top, so that corruption became power and absolute corruption became absolute power??
We all became complicit since WE knew the dictator was corrupt; the DICTATOR knew he was corrupt, but WE stayed quiet. Lest we’d be assassinated like poor Walter?
…a modus vivendi
Since corruption’s endemic to the human condition, the best we can do is to keep it from drowning us. Let’s ensure some milk’s left for the calf!!
