Dear Editor,
If you allow lawlessness to prevail in any society you are bound to have challenges when you need to curb such lawlessness. The defiance being shown by minibus operators and other road users is testimony to this fact. The defiance has reached such a stage that we are seeing protest action by members of the public on the Corentyne forcing the police to use tear gas to break up their protests.
All of us need to share the blame for the escalation of this lawless behaviour on our roads. For many times we encourage minibuses to overload, we ask the drivers and conductors to turn the music up, we abuse the commuters who ask for the music to be turned down, we ask the driver to drive a little faster causing him to speed down the road, we see the drivers drinking alcoholic beverages and we say nothing, indeed we all should share the blame.
But the buck must stop somewhere. It is time we put an end to this madness. If the minibuses and the hire cars don’t want to work the government must revoke their licences and they must be banned from driving for at least six months. There must be no scaling down of the zero tolerance campaign, in fact the campaign must be accelerated. There is no need for the President to meet protestors at Tain, the laws are there and they must be obeyed. The opposition People’s National Congress must come out in support to help curb lawlessness.
Yours faithfully,
Clive Fredericks
