Dear Editor
Mr. Malcolm Harripaul’s outburst in the press, and tirade against Hindus, is itself reflective of a strongly self-opinionated person who has suddenly and irrationally put his thoughts in writing without reflecting carefully if it could stand up to scrutiny. Mr. Harripaul’s comments about abuse of alcohol at some wedding houses is noted, but from my interaction with Hindus on a daily basis, most of them abhor this, and will not attend weddings where this is likely to occur, or in fact leave the wedding house before any such transgressions of our Dharma is evident. Our pandits and community leaders have been actively trying to put a stop to this conduct by the would be transgressors. Mr. Harripaul did not mention in his letter, but I am sure he is aware of the crisis of sexual and other types of abuse in many non-Hindu places of worship involving children and women; I hope he turns his attention to these as well.
I have been an active member since 1971 of the Gandhi Youth Organization (one of the oldest Hindu Organizations) and I can advise Mr. Harripaul that our constitution, which was promulgated in 1953, upon its formation, states as one of its main objectives of the need to lobby against alcohol consumption and abuse which our key founding members, Shri Raghunandan Misirji and Dharamacharya Pandit SP Sharma understood, that alcohol abuse and misuse had the clear potential to have a calamitous impact on our society, as is currently the case. Any study on the subject of alcohol abuse, will show that this occurs across the board in Guyana, and possibly is ostensibly more prevalent in areas of high unemployment and in rural areas where there is little or no police presence. I am a regular reader of the main dailies and quite often I read of crimes, lewd behavior, accidents, and domestic abuse etc., following alcohol abuse, and from the names and photos of the offenders’, one can safely deduce that offenders broadly represents all sectors of our society.
In the area where I live, on the lower East Coast, its relative tranquility is often disturbed by the ear piercing sounds emanating from boom-boom boxes. At Christmas and Diwali time, fire crackers and squibs make the country seem like we are in a war zone, disturbing residents in the proximity and animals, again Mr. Harripaul, the offenders would be persons of all religious denominations and races. Every day we can read in court, reports of persons committing crimes after abusing alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and other drugs causing absolute misery to their families and neighbours. I can assure Mr. Harripaul that the miscreants in these cases are from a wide cross section of Guyanese society, including all races and religions.
Clearly, Guyana like many societies suffers immensely from wide spread abuse of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, tobacco etc., and in this regard, as citizens of this country, we must all work together to come up with solutions to these problems and to lobby our central and local Government bodies to take stern action in ensuring that our laws are strengthened and enforced to mitigate the deleterious effects of anti-social conduct. Malcolm Harripaul has made a few suggestions to bring the alcohol scourge under control in the limited area he refers to which is most welcome and in fact I am hoping he leads the charge to increase anti-drug abuse activism on the ground in assisting to edify persons who abuse alcohol etc., as to why they should desist from so doing. However, Editor, one key area that Mr. Harripaul did not address fundamentally is of the supply or availability side and careful consideration by the authorities should be given to the following, inter alia:
1) Increasing the cost of alcohol prices through Government levying punitive taxes in an effort to make it more expensive, of course simultaneously tightening up on possibility of smuggled alcohol entering the country
2) Efficient enforcement by the police and other authorities to ensure that rum shops and other places selling liquor operate only at hours prescribed by the law.
3) Reduce the times that bars and clubs can be open in the night to say latest 1:00 am
4) Institute increased police patrols outside key night spots countrywide to do breathalyzer tests with increased frequency to ensure that drivers are not exceeding the limits allowed by the law
5) Spend more of our oil funds in educating children at school from Primary level of the dangers lurking to those who consume alcohol, tobacco and other drugs
6) Ensure that persons who contravene the laws, both the sellers and users of alcohol and illicit drugs are duly prosecuted
7) Enforce zoning laws in relation to the location of bars, rum shops etc., to ensure that these are not licensed for operation in residential areas and paying keen attention to noise pollution.
8) Increase liquor and tobacco licensing fees significantly to try and steer persons into other endeavours to earn their income.
Editor, these are some workable suggestions which I hope all political parties, civic groups, temples, mosques and churches will support and lobby for to make our society a better place to reside in, hence improving the quality of life for our citizens. I repeat for emphasis, a concerted effort at all levels is needed and indeed the matter of alcohol and narcotics abuse should be brought to Parliament for urgent debate and deliberation since we have a high degree of absenteeism from the work place, particularly on Mondays and Tuesdays, following the weekend spree.
Sincerely,
Christopher Persaud
