Change decadent political culture

THE EDITOR: I read in the Sunday Newsday that the Prime Minister plans to bring in a crime expert to help address crime and violence in the country. The capacity of our leaders to find ways of wasting public money is amazing. Is it not remarkable that a country which boasts of having three universities must now import advisers on crime and violence?

It is obvious that our leaders have learned helplessness, to the extent that the only advice they value must be toned in foreign accents. Hence, our primary and secondary schools’ curricula have been reviewed by foreign educators, and that is why we wasted time and money trying to get a foreign university to help us select a police commissioner.

Unless there is belief in our own institutions and unless we are capable of harnessing these institutions toward a national agenda, we will remain in this sorry state of decay with an inexorable slide into savagery.

But what is to be expected in a situation where local advice is always suspected of being politically motivated, and where public consultations give the impression of being mere ceremonies, intended to satisfy procedural requirements?

Many of us have written on crime and violence in this country, but our efforts only offer a means for getting things off our chests and for temporarily purging our minds of the despair and hopelessness of our situation.

Certainly after all these wasted efforts we have come to the conclusion that successive governments feel threatened by ideas that do not come from within their ranks.

The problem of crime and violence in TT has several sources. However, the two sources that I will identify are poor socialisation of our young and the hostile climate sustained by a divisive political culture.

Because government is in charge of one of the principal forces for socialisation, the education system, there can be a substantial reformation of our education system so that it focuses on the preparation of young people for living harmoniously in society. Many families cannot do so, and the education sector must fill this gap, from early childhood to university level.

Politics in this country has come to mean public insults, racial sniping, corruption, deception, cronyism, privileges for party hacks, trading contracts (and even national awards) for vote getting, and easy access to state resources for some.

I call on the political leaders to clean up their acts, and change this decadent political culture to a better model based on respect, patriotism, integrity, and commitment to improving the quality of life of our citizens.

DAVID SUBRAN

via e-mail