A country called Bacchanalia

THE EDITOR: There was once was a country called Bacchanalia, not in any way related to Trinidad, a small place with a population of about one million people, a former British colony, gross domestic product of 2.3 billion dollars, very rich with its natural resources being minerals, primary gold. Its racial composition was essentially three classes. The country was democratic and with a Parliamentary system of government and elections every four years. The class composition was wide based a large poorer class, a middle class and a small upper class. The standard of education was high. The lower class of people depended mainly on the government in power at the time for work since they were not too educated to obtain employment in the private sector. Also the private employers demanded high performance of their workers in return for meager wages.

The Public Service was the major source of employment for the middle class earners. There was one major festival annually called Street Party which attracted tourists from all over the world but Bacchanalia did not need tourists to survive. They were very economically well off and stable. About five years ago the price of gold began rising phenomenally. The workers in the mineral industry got better wages, the companies mining the gold started making exorbitant profits so the government revenues began to increase by quantum leaps. Soon the health sector, utilities sector and other government run institutions began protesting for higher salaries eventually it spilled over into the private sector, everyone was demanding higher salaries. The crime situation got worse. The drug trade was flourishing, inflation was also on the rise. The country was experiencing windfall dollar but the people began to suffer.

The government in power promised the people many things but the problem was that the government didn’t really care about the people. The Ministers main concern was to fill their own pockets. Only at election time you saw the politicians. After that they drove around in their tinted Mercedes Benz and BMWs and lived in the high class gated areas. They fooled the people into thinking they cared about them. They allowed them to squat freely, live in sub-standard, subsidised houses, provided manual labour jobs tantamount to digging holes and refilling them. In short only the lower class people were satisfied. They were the least educated and their main concern was to get money to buy food and mind their families. They were not concerned about crime or bad roads or poor treatment. They couldn’t care that the government was corrupt. That was not their business. The politicians knew that to win elections you had to provide for the masses. But when the government spent 20 million on the people they pocketed 80 million. They got kick backs, expensive presents, big favours, deposits in offshore banks, houses in other countries but they were untouchable because nobody could prove anything.

The large accounts, the buildings were not in their names, the gifts were untraceable. Nobody came forward to press charges except one or two persons but they succumbed to pressure. Everybody knew the government was corrupt but nobody did anything. Everyone was just content to throw blame and nothing else. Eventually the crime rate began to skyrocket and people felt the difference. They imposed their own curfews, lived in houses with iron bars, the rich hired security or moved to gated communities. The middle class was in a quandary they couldn’t afford gated communities and they refused to stay home at night locked up. Bacchanalia had changed. The middle class began to protest. The politicians were too busy with their own agenda to care. They brought in foreign help and big gadgets to appease the people.

One day a protest march was organised and drew 50,000 people. The people were fed up. They begged the politicians to fix the country, the government failed to act. Another march drew 75,000. The people wanted the government to step down. In the end a referendum was called. The people nominated an ordinary man to speak on their behalf. He was self-employed. He had lost his mother in a robbery that turned violent. The people called for the resignation of all Ministers including Opposition Members. They wanted new blood. They wanted simple intelligent people to be in Parliament not people with grandiose aspiration for self. The majority spoke, a new leader was chosen.

YASEEN AHMED
Woodbrook