Using children in the political game

This column has been missing for the past two weeks largely because I have been out of the jurisdiction. On one occasion I was without access to the internet. In fact, I had no form of communication at all. I am now back to fill the void that I created.

In fewer than six weeks Guyanese will go to the polls. Already there are the rallies and other crowd pulling events to highlight political support. There are also other things such as photo opportunities to emphasise the colour of one party or the other.

However, there are some sickening instances of one party trying to emphasise its support base. The one that was most sickening to me was the move to dress school children in the colours of one of the political parties.

The People’s Progressive Party travelled to Baracara, up the Canje River with Zulfikar Mustapha leading the group. The People’s National Congress Reform had visited the community earlier and had made an impact.

Here was Zulfikar trying to send a message that the PPP was as popular. He and his group went to the school, shut it down and selected the little Black children to wear the red jerseys now synonymous with the PPP campaign.

The cameraman herded a few of these children together, took the photograph and disseminated it in a rather surreptitious manner. This was a shameless abuse of children. It was done at no other school anywhere in the country and for obvious reasons.

One could have perhaps allowed the incident to pass if the children were of voting age. But these were primary school children blissfully unaware that they were being used as pawns in a political game.

This incident highlighted the absence of morals among those running this country. One commentator on social media actually exclaimed that this has gone too far. There was not a peep from the Ethnic Relations Commission or from some of the organisations established to represent the rights of children.

One thing that came over quite clearly was that one can now imagine the rampant abuse of the children in the hinterland regions. It is not uncommon to hear of senior PPP officials visiting the hinterland communities and sexually molesting the young indigenous children.

It is also not uncommon for the supporters to visit these communities and remove the children to work as prostitutes in their bars and clubs. This is rampant on the Essequibo Coast.

But the children are not the only ones being abused. Poor and starving adults, particularly those from the depressed communities are being abused. Money is the bait.

For years there have been people in the PPP going to these communities with a promise to pay the people to don the party jersey or to stage picketing exercises at events believed to be hosted by the political opposition.

There have been occasions when the protesters hid their faces from the cameras. Those who spoke could not explain the reason for their presence in the picket line.

When they reassembled at the end of the exercise many were given boxes of food and some, money. Recently, a woman was beaten up because she dared to complain about the money she received. She contended that she was promised $50,000 to join a political march. At the end of the exercise, she said that she got $15,000. Her complaint got her a beating. This matter is now before the court.

On the political platform, one is now hearing that it is in the government’s interest to keep the people mired in poverty. Once the people are poor, the promise of any sum would galvanise them. There were those who sang the praises of the government when they were given small contracts to build roads although they never had any roadbuilding experience.

Some were so gullible that they fell for the first person who approached them with the necessary equipment and a promise to do the job for a few dollars less than the contract sum. Fortunately, this award of money does not always guarantee the necessary results.

This was the case during the last local government elections

Of interest is that most of the people who took the money from the PPP are now taking money from Azruddin Mohamed. If the PPP were counting on these people for a vote they must think again. People are saying that Mohamed is giving the PPP nightmares.

And it is not only the depressed few who are gravitating to Mohamed. There are people in PPP strongholds who say that they have had enough of the PPP. The ethnic divide in the country is such that there are those in the PPP strongholds who would not vote for anyone other than one who looks like them.

Failing that, they would stay at home on Election Day.

Meanwhile the woes continue. Blackouts and little or no water is a daily cry. It is hard to imagine that a country touted as the fastest growing economy in the world is plagued by failing infrastructure. Billions of dollars in contracts have been awarded for the construction of new wells.

Some are still to get underway more than two years after the contracts were awarded. For a long time, the talk was that the contracts were intended to place money into the pockets of close friends and supporters.

Schools that should have been completed are nowhere close. But these are being hidden from what are being touted as achievements. Instead, the government is quietly trying to sell the electricity company. The gas to energy project that is now more than twice the original cost is lagging.

Moves are underway to attract foreign investors to take over this project. But the government insists that it is the best thing for the country.