Youth and the future

DR ERROL NARINE BENJAMIN

IT WAS such an insult to our intelligence as a fairly well educated people that one of our senior officials in crime could, gleefully, lay claim to real success in the fight in discovering two caches of sophisticated arms in the Santa Cruz area, without even for a moment dwelling on the issue of who may be responsible and the need to bring them to justice.

That may come, I suppose, but the absence of such critical focus in making the announcement with such fanfare tells a whole story about the fight against crime. It would take the young people of this country to do so, and, might I add, that response coming from people of all the major races, since in so many ways the take on national issues in this country often has little to do with substance and more on ethnic considerations for the sake of the politics.

But the young people, without exception, on the 7 pm TV news of October 19, on a feedback segment on issues, focused on the emptiness of the claim to success by this official without emphasising the need for the perpetrators to be caught and brought to justice, the young people intelligently drawing this conclusion that there would have been leads to making this discovery which could have well pointed to the perpetrators.

It was no surprise to me that the official did not emphasise this critical aspect of the crime there and then, choosing instead to huff and puff about their success and how “relentless” they are going after criminals, somewhat reminiscent of a similar "huff and puff" in the earlier days about crime being reduced in three months or something to that effect, with the public now virtually overwhelmed by criminal activity.

Some may argue that it is a matter of incompetence, a failure to appreciate the logistics of successful crime-fighting. Maybe. But I think it has more to do with the indifference, indeed the contempt, with which the public is treated on matters of national concern. For writers like myself and many others would have been writing from here to eternity about national issues.

And without being presumptuous about deserving an ear from the authorities, it is not unreasonable to think that in a democratic society such as ours, the people in positions of power and who run our lives should have the mettle to be concerned about what the people would say and how they think.

A democracy like ours involving “government of the people, by the people” demands this, at least in theory, making leaders the servants of the people and accountable to them, but in practice that component has long disappeared from the national psyche because of an enduring racial politics which makes accountability from our leaders a luxury which is expendable. The tribe is in the loop, they would say, and we can say and do as we please.

But the young people would have proved them lacking in foresight and not only on this occasion. In a post-debate forum for youth organised by the newly appointed Senator Dr Sharda Patasar, the reference was made to another senior official who once again insulted our intelligence.

That official was virtually salivating in typical gleeful fashion over the fact that the police have been increased a thousandfold, which was certain to reduce the crime rate, only to be told by the young people present about how simplistic such a presumption is, since solving crime must go beyond the numbers into getting to the root cause of the problem to make any significant dent.

Once again they demonstrated that they have the capacity to look at problems with a critical eye in order to find solutions, unlike those who lead us. I wonder what their thoughts are about this Canadian forum being used to solve our crime problem at the behest of a foreign prime minister desperately trying to salvage his worsening image in the world.

That evening of October 17 was a breath of fresh air for me for, as a concerned citizen writing on national issues for almost a quarter of a century, I feel like I have reached the end of my tether in that respect, like so many others.

But these young people have given me the hope that, if not in my lifetime, they represent a mode of thinking that will set the tone for transcending that retrogressive mindset which the racial divide in our politics has bred in us as high culture, and pave the way, African and Indian et al, for a new dawn where every creed and race will truly find an equal place.