Time to work together

1. Why are we searing our society in the flames of discord and vituperation? We must be the change we want to see in the world.

Our moral and social fabric are near extinction or as some have said it has been annihilated as seen with our crime rate and levels of criminality, yet instead of trying everything feasible to resuscitate and build our society, we engage in condemnation and fault-finding instead of working in unity with solutions and recommendations.

I ask rhetorically, if someone has suffered a huge wound that is gashing with blood and is not in close proximity to medical care, do the bystanders not take whatever interim measures to cease or lessen the bleeding until the appropriate care can be given?

The august chamber of the Senate is seen in bi-cameral systems of government, patterning the Westminster model as the revered place that comprises distinguished persons of sound intellectual minds drawn from various spheres and disciplines (economics, finance, law/ jurisprudence, social sciences and academicians from other sects) apart from the government appointees and those from the Opposition bench.

The purpose of those non-government/opposition appointees is to rise above partisan interests and to not only ensure they act as a check and balance but to use their areas of expertise to provide solution-based suggestions when necessary in the interest of the wider society.

To revive the remnants of our moral structure and deplete juvenile delinquency, in the interim, a stop gap measure in the form of the Defence Bill was introduced. It is obvious that the intent was to bring some semblance of order and restore some level of comfort to law-abiding citizens amidst the scourge of serious crime while we work on other long-term measures that are in dire need of revamping.

Items like the management of the Police Service, role and functions of the oversight body for the Police Service, revisiting the convoluted legislative framework and the constituents (Police Service Commission; Service Commission Department etc) involved with regards to recruiting the Executive level of the Police Service; redress/recourse for rogue elements of the police service, recruitment, induction/ training of new officers for longevity are just some of the multitude of issues that need to be addressed.

We must bear in mind that in democracies where decisions are made based on consensus and outcomes from referenda, these involve processes and are not instantaneous as would have in other forms of non-democratic government structures — socialism/communism.

All the time and energy expended on fault-finding on the Bill and diatribes something bordering on personal attacks, I would have expected that with all the great intellectual minds on the Independent benches in the Senate, that they would have caucused as patriots and with the expected lens of a detective, highlighted the deficiencies they thought went unnoticed or unaddressed with the legislation , collaborate with the mindset to provide some suggestions and a way forward in the interest of time and given the magnitude of the crime problem.

I heed to all our eminent Independent Senators, to devise solutions to the problems you highlighted in the debate, meet with the relevant Government Senators so that we can have some headway before the debate is convened again and as a result, lessen the amount of blood flowing out of the wound until we reach the medical experts/facilities(fixing the law-enforcement agencies and processes).

I implore you to let the key underpinning words of our national pledge that keeps us together, ring home in every crevice of society, “I will strive in everything I do, to work together with my fellowmen of every creed and race, for the greater happiness of all, And the honour and glory of my country”.

KESTON WILTSHIRE

Santa Rosa Heights