Personalism and ruthless exploitation
Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
May 7, 2007
The late scholar, Archie Singham, was the first Caribbean writer to describe the inherent dangers of personalism in West Indian politics. In his book, The Hero in the Crowd , Singham showed where in small Grenada, relationships between the governmental leaders and the society were personalised ones.
In countries with tiny populations, the social and political implications of personalism are too horrible to contemplate. In Guyana, personalism makes for a tragic country.
The wealthy classes permeate the state sector, the security apparatus and political society. The consequences are ruthless exploitation of the poor and powerless. Guyanese would be shocked to know how many labour leaders are being patronized by the very employers that they have to bargain with for workers' rights.
I can't name the business organizations because to do so would reveal who the unions are and I don't want any legal action against this newspaper.
The moneyed and properties classes control the social levers and decide how the pendulum swings in this country. When I was growing up, I remember two famous court cases of successful prosecution of well-to-do society members. One was a Chief Education Officer who was a high-level leader of the GCC club. He was charged for embezzlement and was jailed.
The other was a wealthy businessman from Berbice who was imprisoned for death by dangerous driving. Those days are long gone. Even the stratum below the bourgeois class is exempt from police investigation and prosecution.
This is a country where people with money who don't know how to read and write properly have enormous influence to the point that they are the untouchables. The most hurtful aspect of this nexus is in the area of dangerous driving. These moneyed people are socially irresponsible citizens, so are their children.
They drive dangerously. They drive while intoxicated. They kill people on the road. They are never brought to justice. Then comes the really semi-civilized dimension to this national tragedy. The relatives and families of the victims are lured with huge sums of money not to proceed with police investigations.
One mother bluntly told me that the two million dollars was worth taking because her refusal would not have changed anything; the driver would have remained untouched anyway.
This was cruel bluntness based on reality. Had she not taken the money, the matter would have vanished anyway, was how she put it to me. She was right. This grieving mother couldn't see that in accepting that sum she was actually acknowledging that her son's life was worth two million dollars.
The Guyana Police Force is disgustingly staffed with some corrupt officers. Rich people kill poor citizens on the roadways and the matter is settled.
But the law does not allow for this. If the relatives want to have a compromise such an arrangement does not prevent the police from proceeding. But some police officers are glad to ensure a settlement for obvious reasons. Not so in the case of a poor man that was charged for stealing a laptop. He made restitution yet the police pursued the charges.
The magistrate had no leniency. She jailed him. Need I extend the analysis in this particular context?
Three situations warrant the interest of all of those Guyanese who want to see justice function in this country. When Toolsie Persaud Ltd suffered a loss due to a raid on its lumber site by men using speedboats to invade the wharf, the police had suspects within a week's time.
When Republic Bank found that someone had looted its ATM at Guyoil gas station outlet at Kitty, the police moved into overdrive. It was as if the police were looking for dangerous criminals. The police promptly heeded the call from Republic Bank.
Call the police anytime night or day about any serious criminal act in any working class district and the police either never show up or when they do, it is long after. It could be rape, murder, robbery; the police take their sweet time.
How do I know this? Not because others have told me. Not because I did some research; but because I have lived all my life in South Georgetown and have made the calls myself.
I know this because I have experienced this class bias by the police, the very police officers that I have taught at UG and who should be conscious of the need to perform their duties without regard to who is who in society.
Remember a jewelry store owner in Stabroek Market was shot right outside her home. Her husband was only asked to provide a statement (one month later) after he wrote a letter in the press lamenting the police's malaise.
Wealth brings ruthless exploitation in Guyana to the extent that a revolution can break out anytime. The combined sum owed to the NIS and the Georgetown City Council by middle class citizens, the well off groups and rich folks totals a billion. That money will never be paid for a number of reasons.
First, the City Councilors themselves are on the receiving end of nice treatment. Does it make any sense paying $50M to the City Council when you will never be prosecuted? Secondly, the defaulters know the major political actors themselves.
It is my contestation that the debtors contribute to the election campaigns of the major political parties. This ties their hands.
Thirdly, the City Council and NIS defaulters have ongoing relationships with most of the important politicians in both the ruling and opposition parties. This is personalism at work. It would not be politically wise for them to join the protest against those that do not pay rates and taxes and eschew their NIS obligations.
This is the reality about class structures in Guyana. One must ask the pertinent question how did the amount become so large? The answer is easy; personalism and patronage. Since the wealthy classes know the state actors and know that they won't be prosecuted, each year, they refuse to pay and the debt gets larger.
Of course the tragic consequences include workers who have nothing to collect when they fall sick. The PPP, PNC, AFC, Eric Phillips and his Renaissance movement, ACDA, Red Thread, GHRA, TUC and the entire Guyanese society remain silent about a billion dollars owed to the people of Guyana by those who have foreign bank accounts.
One day revolution will come to Guyana.