Guyana is rapidly spiralling down into political mediocrity and self-destruction

Dear Editor,
Evidently a dangerous and destructive lifestyle is fast becoming the new norm in our society. Once held acceptable values, ethics, respect for law and order, decency and civility are hijacked by officialdom, the mighty, unethical, intolerant and rouge elements of our society.
Some of our leaders no longer lead, feel responsible to their constituents/taxpayers, or want to be held accountable for their actions.
A distinguished medical practitioner is before the court on allegation of committing vigilante justice. Parliamentarians have defected from the constituents they have been elected to serve even as they continue to retain the seats and enjoy the benefits and salaries bequeathed the positions as they formed and campaigned on a new political party.
A GECOM Commissioner retains his position even though he’s walked away from the Party that appointed him their representative. A U.S. fugitive and drug lord boasted of an association with government and engaged in extra-judicial killings and unlawful activities but found protection by officialdom, the business-class, and lauded a hero. Mass murders are committed and families denied justice by the state failures to put the accused before the Courts. Hundreds of young men have been eliminated through unnatural means and the government refuses to carry out any investigation or enforce the Coroner’s Act.
The Auditor General continues to submit reports exposing the abuse and misuse of taxpayers’ money and the government doesn’t care while the citizens become powerless, numbed/indifference to these transgressions. Government no longer respects the Collective Bargaining process and feels no remorse imposing wages/salaries on some section of workers.
Decades of taxpayers’ contributions given in the form a yearly grant/subvention is now denied an educational institution because the institution’s owner is not prepared to be controlled by the government. Government uses its parliamentary majority to make unjust and inhumane laws.
Those media exposing corruption, injustice and lawlessness have seen efforts to silence them through ads withdrawals, suspensions and lawsuits, with some now tamed into silence or minimization of the wrong-doings. The army and police have become hired guns and have actively participated in acts not in keeping with their scope and the law, comforted that the state will protect them. Nested in this comfort some have resorted to executing their own criminal acts.
Court rulings are ignored or overruled and the President feels no angst being a party to this lawlessness. A government minister fired gun shots on an unarmed citizen and is ignored by law-enforcers. Unprecedented, a senior political leader withholds information on his health from taxpayers even as taxpayers’ foot the medical bills. Government officials and politicians are guaranteed overseas extended medical care paid for by the taxpayers even as these taxpayers are denied basic medical care locally. Discrimination is rampant and those speaking out are labeled racist, murdered, jailed, attacked, threatened, charged, sidelined or discriminated against.
Attendance to domestic abuse/violence and condemnation is selective, with some groups opting for silence, either out of political loyalty or fear. The line between legitimate and rouge business is blurred and the Inland Revenue boss seems incapable of handling it or refuses to touch it. The only Commissioner of Police within recent time who attempted to restore law and order was hounded and contrary to recent trend was not allowed to stay on after the age of 55.
Guyana is rapidly spiralling down into political mediocrity and self-destruction. International reports have also cited/condemned these damning trends. Yet our guilty leaders continue the free-fall, with some paying lip service against it, comforted in their thinking/belief that if they are less unethical, less uncivil, or break the laws less then people will not notice or think they are doing a better job.
Standards have fallen so badly, even the progressive independent media (society’s watchdog) seem overwhelmed, unable to handle the degeneracy, or forced to go with the flow. Those who desire a society where laws reign supreme, civility becomes entrenched in normal discourse and ethics return know it’s an Herculean task to reverse the trend, but it’s a task that has to be taken up less all be consumed.
M. A. Bacchus