Dear Editor,
Undoubtedly there is tremendous anger against corruption. The public outrage has come out on the streets to give vent to their frustration. People are fed up and are willing to follow any path that promises to root out corruption from their daily lives. If demonstrations in the streets are a forward step in the direction of rooting out corruption, the harassed population of this country will provide a willing platform for what an autocratic government might wrongly name the ‘subversion of democracy.’
Corruption starts from the desire to have more than you have rightfully earned. We always seem to need more money to buy or acquire more things and this insatiable hunger for increasing consumption propels us to seek illicit avenues for making ‘black‘ money. Be it an average man, or a businessman or a politician – all seem to be on this enticing path to get more and more. The government clerk sitting on a file wants ‘speed‘ money to take any action; the policeman on the street has to be given money for the truck to move forward; and some members of the excise department in connivance with traders and businessmen deprive the state exchequer of receiving the correct taxes. Corruption has become a normal way of life and eats into the vital organs of our society. There is despair and unwilling acceptance by all that this is now the normal way of life. Or is it?
Any movement against corruption is a path that people will readily follow, especially the urban middle class, since there seems to be no other way for them to fight it. Anything that promises a fast result is acceptable as a panacea; whether it will do so is another matter. In this age of instant results, where information travels fast through the internet and SMS, attractive slogans and simple solutions attract the urban youth. There is no time to get to the root of the problem; no patience with formalities and procedures; no rules of the game; no need for any dialogue – all essential elements of a vibrant democracy.
We have seen how the overriding desire for consumption drives us towards corruption. It is this desire that corporations and businessmen exploit through their amassed wealth and we easily succumb for pieces of gold coin. It is this desire to build empires and collect more profits with the false notion of spreading wealth to all that is depriving today’s farmers of their fertile land, tribals of their homes in rich mineral deposit areas, and the rural poor of their meagre sustaining income, creating a super-divide between two Guyanas. This is the real corruption which we are reluctant to face. Until rural Guyana gets its rightful place and priority in the scheme of things and in the planning corridors of Georgetown, unless land becomes an inalienable right of the weak and oppressed – the rural poor – no amount of remedial measures against corruption will work. The glitter of the West has blinded us and the remedial measures proposed for battling corruption instantly blindfold us from investigating the root cause.
Yours faithfully,
Vijay Singh