Weekly Column

We have come to expect this knee jerk reaction from this Government that at first blush appears to be solving a problem, but which in the long run is likely to create even further comess.

It is noteworthy that both Morris Lee and Judy Forde have said that they have been trying to sit down with the government to find a solution to the problems in their industry, but have been ignored.

In fairness to Mr. Lee, he has been proactive in encouraging his membership to attend courses at the Polytechnic specially geared for PSV operators and seems genuine in his pursuit of raising standards in the industry.

On the other hand, the Government - led by no less a person than the Prime Minister, has sought to lay the blame for the anti-social, wayward behavior exhibited by some of our young people on what we Bajans call the ‘minibus culture.’

While we know that certain types of music and high speeds can become a vehicle (no pun intended) for excitement and reckless behaviour often sought after by young people - we also know that there is a deeper root cause for some of the lewdness, vulgarity, violence and lack of self respect that we see exhibited on the PSVs.

For certain, peer pressure will play its part, but where are the parents in this scenario. Are they not like the rest of us who abhor the behaviour that we saw flashed across the media?

Did they not recognize a single child and take them to task? We need to look closely first at ourselves before we seek to lay the blame at someone else’s door.

You cannot legislate decorum and good manners. They have to be taught. And what of the rest of society? Does it have a role to play in reporting unacceptable behavior to head teachers and the police? Is this not what our grandparents would have done?

These are issues that have been raised in several fora by our leader Mia Amor Mottley - the need to re-build the blocks of civility, civic responsibility and self-confidence on which our communities were founded.

But we have another concern as well. It is the issue of rationalizing public transport across the island. The Transport Authority, which this Government has refused to bring on stream, has the remit to look at the broader issues of how routes are serviced, the competition for fares, national transportation requirements and so on that will bring some logic to our transportation system, both now and in the years ahead.

The Attorney General’s first option cannot be to confiscate a man’s property and livelihood. The Attorney General must first set in train the demerit points system currently under the Road Traffic Act for drivers who are serial offenders.

This system will lead to the ultimate suspension of the driver’s license for up to twelve months without prejudice to fines and imprisonment. The answer cannot be to ban schoolchildren from PSVs when the state owned Transport Board does not have the capacity to get them to and from school. These are knee jerk reactions to public pressure. Free bus rides have not curbed the problem of bad behaviour and neither will either of these two approaches.

The Government must integrate the private operators into the system under the jurisdiction of the Transport Authority and work collaboratively with the associations of Miss Forde and Mr. Lee. Remove the irritants – human, music, competitiveness, low or no standards - that feed the free-for-all environment that has attracted young people from time immemorial.

We must all become whistleblowers and weed out the bad apples that set no example for our children.
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