The election of Mr. Azrudin Mohamed, the leader of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), to the National Assembly and his appointment as the Deputy Speaker is neither novel nor should be swept aside.
Across the world – in the Philippines, Nigeria, Brazil, and particularly India – voters have been showing a willingness to cast their ballots for candidates accused and even convicted multiple times of serious criminal offences. In relation to this trend, Caricom has been a small zone of democracy, but not surprisingly, it is in Guyana, the autocratic outlier under the rulership of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), that the dangerous trend is finding a foothold.
It does not matter how laudable their goals, all social organisations find it necessary to establish arrangements to apprehend the wayward and corrupt. Corruption is a natural outcome of the human condition and it is inevitable that some politicians will be or become corrupt. The interface may be somewhat blurred, but the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) of India appears to define the ‘criminalisation of politics’ as when criminals, as a different subgroup, contest and are elected to parliament. It noted that this ‘growing menace has become a big problem for Indian society, affecting the basic principles of democracy, such as fairness in elections, following the law, and being accountable.’ (https://adrindia.org/content/record-46-of-newly-elected-lok-sabha-mps-facing-criminal-cases).
Others have argued that the criminalisation of politics not only harms democracy and the rule of law but fosters corruption among politicians and weakens citizens’ trust in the political system. Development stagnates as politicians with criminal backgrounds prioritise their own interests over that of the community and democratic institutions are weakened as criminal elements manipulate them for all manner of personal gain.
In almost every jurisdiction, association with criminals’ limits voter choice by making it harder to find deserving candidates. Elected officials with criminal ties undermine effective governance and their involvement increases illegal money in the elections process leading to even more corruption. Criminals are usually closely associated with a culture of violence that erodes trust and public confidence in the political process, but most importantly, it sets a negative example for the young people to whom we are bequeathing the future.
An ADR analysis revealed that by the 2024 national elections in India, a record 251 (46 percent) of the 543 newly elected members had criminal cases registered against them and 27 of them had been convicted. Note that the number for 2004 was 125 or 23%, 2009 162 or 30%, 2014 185 or 34%, 2019 233 or 43%.. In 2024, 251 of the winning candidates had criminal cases against them and 170 (31%) faced serious charges including rape, murder, attempted, murder, kidnapping, and crimes against women.
It was Aristotle (384–322 BC), one of the most influential Western political sociologists/philosophers, who first drew our attention to the importance of political relations to our growth and development, and he suggested a template for political man that is still appropriate. He argued that man is a social being and that politics is ‘master science’: the foundation of all the other sciences that governs all aspects of our lives with the objective of achieving the good life for all individuals and their communities. It plays a central role in shaping the moral and ethical direction of the individual and society, and thus understanding politics is essential for the development of a well-functioning society.
All citizens should become involved in politics as it should be the most virtuous of professions and, crucially, society must foster virtuous and ethical behaviour by establishing adequate moral directions, laws and governance institutions to create an environment wherein all individuals can equitably flourish and fulfill their highest potential.
In theory, free competitive elections should help to prevent corrupt individuals from being elected to office, but as we have again saw a few months ago, free elections are foreign to Guyana. But even where they exist, it is now widely acknowledged that the criminalisation of politics poses a grave threat to democracy and good governance. This results from suboptimal socialisation linked to the existing levels of socio/economic inequalities. Thus, dealing with this issue requires a multifaceted approach and it is important to understand and address this issue from its various perspectives if one is to contribute to the creation of a transparent and more accountable political system.
Many factors are said to give rise to the criminalisation and resulting degeneration of the political process, almost all of which are present in Guyana as they are in most autocratic states. The absence of adequate elections laws and their enforcement, delays in legal proceedings that prevent the swift dealing with offenders, illiteracy, lack of awareness of ethical governance, the important of race, religion and poverty – the latter of which the PPP has deliberately inflicted upon the African people over the last three decades, etc.
Criminals usually enter politics to protect their illegal activities and provide themselves with socio/political coverage and leverage. They usually have resources that they use to buy, manage and, with the aid of social media and their local agents, mobilise monitor and reward participation.
It is almost impossible for Guyana to get politically lower; weak autocratic governance rooted in race, the absence of adequate political socialisation, a regime-dominated media space, widespread ethnic poverty, etc, have all combined to establish a flippancy about the association of crime and politics that is truly astonishing.
