Freedom, a feeling that anything goes

The Editor: The majority of citizens of Trinidad &Tobago will agree that our country, one of the wealthiest in the western hemisphere based on its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is caught up in the throes of social and moral decay presently and Manning and his PNM administration do not know what to do to solve the problem.

Freedom and democracy then as it is now in T&T is the thinking and feeling that “anything goes.” One can cuss, fight, commit murder, rape, run guns and drugs, wine-down in public during carnival, harass, steal, abduct and carry out the most heinous crimes, all in the name of freedom and democracy. And, although the police may charge you for the crime committed — you are almost certain that the judiciary or the magistracy with their own perception of social behaviour and crime will set you free based on technicalities because of old, outdated British law! What a beautiful country to live in!

To build a fair and good society meaning a free society, requires more than simply formal legalisms and economic theories. If our institutions of democracy and capitalism are to work properly they must coexist with certain pre modern cultural habits that ensure their proper functioning. Law, contract and economic rationality provide a necessary but not sufficient basis for both the stability and prosperity of a small yet rich society like ours. They must as well be leavened with reciprocity, moral obligation, duty towards community, and trust which are based in habit rather than rational calculation. This is what a well-meaning government must strive for. Not the empty, vacuous statements and approaches that the PNM has always been noted for while simultaneously running-down our country!

Dr Chris Mahadeo
Port-of-Spain