A CULTURE of law and order is the basic element upon which civilisation rests; its denomination is existential. No country, society or community has ever been successful without it. Our ability to maintain strong institutions is the bedrock of good governance, economic development, and wealth creation; it is an indispensable part of human existence.
I have been writing columns, letters, and editorials on this subject for well over two decades. In fact, portions of this article are copied from a piece I wrote in 2018 and still remains relevant today. I believe that society survives and thrives not based on the amount of riches it accumulates, but on how well it is able to function with rules-based order. Of what use would all your riches be if it existed in the O.K Corral?
Today I focus on our traffic culture. Recently, the traffic chief reported that up to the end of March 2026, fatal and serious accidents have increased by over 18 per cent. It would be an interesting tale if we kept stats on the damage caused to public property due to vehicular accidents. Over recent years, we have gotten more roads that are wider and smoother along with a greater number of safety features and better lighting. We have also gotten a round of modern law reforms and application of high technology, yet fatal and serious accidents are soaring. The issue in play is our road culture.
As a normal way of life, we install unapproved vehicular headlights; use decorative and unapproved numberplates; install all kinds of psychedelic blinking tail-lights; blast our horns with impunity in front of schools, courthouses, and places of worship. We routinely apply unsafe levels of illegal tints to front windshields. We routinely neglect to stop at pedestrian crossings. Motorcyclists wear unapproved helmets or none at all. We ride bicycles without the legally prescribed bell or night lights. Minibuses habitually ply unapproved routes, charge unprescribed fares, blare loud and obscene music, speed, and overload in an environment where touting and harassment of passengers is routine. We allow our domestic and farm animals to wander in the heart of town. We fester a preponderance of unlicensed taxis and taxi drivers; all of whom operate in an unregulated environment and charge any fare they deem fit.
All of this goes on unabated in full view of law enforcement and policymakers. It is so pervasive that even law enforcement officers are seen engaging in these very practices, with freedom and ease. It is a well-known pervasive traffic culture that officers extort bribes from motorists: “Decide yuh mind; is either leff or rite! Leff something before ah rite dis ticket!”
It’s not uncommon to see uniformed police officer riding in extremely overloaded minibus, where the conductor has to stand with his buttocks hanging out the window to make room for the 23rd passenger in a 15-seater minibus.
These things are done with such brazenness and impunity, to the point where it has taken foothold and become an imbedded part of the traffic culture. This pervasive culture of lawlessness has been eating away at our value system and contributing to a general breakdown of law and order while taking the lives of innocent citizens. I believe that our collective value system has been compromised to the extent that it threatens public safety and negatively impacts governance and will ultimately stagnate or retard development. It is time for condign knee jerking and comprehensive response.
Our response over the years has been like applying a plaster to a hemorrhaging wound. There is an occasional flare-up campaign with fancy code names. The very day the campaign ends, it’s back to life as usual. Guyana cries out for the denouncement of these rounds of piecemeal campaigns.
I did not support the M&CC parking metre fiasco at the fundamental level for reasons quite different from most of the objections raised by a deluge of organic public outcry. The objections raised included allegations of corruption, circumventing legal procedures, lack of transparency and the creation of a financial burden for citizens and visitors to the capital city.
Full disclosure, I was not opposed to the idea of the parking metre itself. However, I remember feeling a sense of maddening revulsion to the proposed price structure. $500 an hour was madness. Parking should cost slack change, not solid lunch money as it then was. I concede that the popular objections were all solid and valid, but my foremost opposition was from a public policy standpoint. In its proposed form, it added another layer of isolated piecemeal policy prescription that ignored the larger traffic reform imperatives, instead of being a cog in a larger comprehensive national traffic management plan. I am not a fan of piecemeal policy reformation, in any sector.
A comprehensive, sustained road transportation policy is needed to target cultural reorientation; every citizen must join hands with policymakers. It is now ‘forever’ since I’ve begun advocating for the establishment of a Department of Motor Vehicle and Traffic Management to cater for comprehensive transportation management.
The current fragmented administrative structure was designed more than 70 years ago when there were five vehicles on our roads; it has served its purpose. It is no longer efficient or suited for our extant challenges. It will not arrest the pervasiveness of the death culture on our roadways.