من الأشهر اليوم؟

DR ERROL N BENJAMIN

IN A letter entitled “Education should be a top priority for the Govt,” I posed the question to the reader as to the kind of mindset that would allow for such a dramatic reduction in enrolment at our tertiary level, both technical/vocational and academic, due to reduced GATE funding, and its negative impact on our development as a people.
And I seemed to have found a perspective to my own question. With all the talk about education for all, is it likely that a literate population is not really part of the political equation, for widespread literacy means asking questions about the stewardship of our leadership, which in turn means having to account, with an appropriate political consequence at the ballot box?
Political longevity is the goal of most politicians and sometimes the means to that is not strictly honourable, more “political” in the Machiavellian sense of the word, "cunning, amoral and opportunist,” according to the Collins Dictionary.
Just take a look at the unfettered immigration across the Mexican border into the US and consider the linkage with more votes for President Biden and the Democrats, and also of the likely outcome in neighbouring Guyanese elections in favour of David Granger because of electoral manipulation, were it not for the timely intervention of Mia Mottley as head of Caricom.
So it seems not so far-fetched that beneath the widespread discourse on education for all in this country, the incumbent has much to gain in terms of political longevity with an all-pervasive, non-questioning illiteracy.
And this plays well into the ethnic divide in our politics in this country. The two major races would have been set apart from the beginning by the historical antipathy which arose out of slavery and indentureship, with freed Africans seeing the incoming Indian indentures as a threat to their bargaining power with the planter class. And this would manifest itself in various ways, like the Africans being more urban, the Indians more rural, et al.
But critically, that division, after independence, would lead to the formation of two race-based parties, the PNM for Africans and the DLP/UNC for Indians, and with this ethnic division institutionalised in the politics, it became the fodder for the politicians to feed on without ever having to account, their longevity in office assured in exchange for the rewards they provide to an unquestioning tribe.
So, is it any wonder at the complacency, even indifference, to the cries of the people because of rampant crime, price gouging, low or stagnant salaries, and now the unprecedented devastation due to floods, inter alia?
It is common to hear from the leadership that we will deal with the floods when the rain stops, and that with a grin, or that we will fix the roads, with the now standard “when we get the money," and often that security is doing its job when murders are over 550 and counting, inter alia. Even the side opposite is “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Shakespeare’s Macbeth).
All around you will hear the "wailing and gnashing of teeth” of the people, but without the will and knowhow, the character, cognitive capacity which their education would have produced in them to ask meaningful questions about their leadership. And drilled into the syndrome of “who we go put,” they will, nevertheless, stain their fingers for those who continue to be indifferent to their suffering.
And why not, for this illiteracy which prevents you from sensing your own ethnic bias and not questioning your leaders as a result, ironically has its rewards for it gives you the proverbial “mess of pottage" without really having to work for it, and not only at the grassroots level.
Even for the literate, questioning the ruling class does not pay, for it may mean the loss of your own "mess of pottage.” So why pay the "principle” card when you can lose so much in doing so?
In the Old West the most cynical manifestation of the fate of a man of solid principles is what is written on his tombstone: “Here lies a man of solid principles.” As was the case with Stonewall Jackson daring to question the gunslinger Wilson in the movie Shane.
So in such a neat arrangement, and on both sides of the divide I might add, where leaders continue to lead without question, seemingly ad infinitum, and simple-minded and not so simple-minded tribal loyalists continue to support them for the rewards to be had, how can a sustained programme of education fit to produce an enlightened electorate that will make intelligent choices for their leaders based on competence, character and a genuine will to serve?
This time I do not need an answer, for the question is rhetorical and the answer is implicit.
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