![\"\"](\"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/commentary2.jpg\" "\\"commentary\\"")
\u201cMy mother once told me that stealing and lying are cousins. We have known of the former all along. Now we are being introduced to the latter\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cMy mother once told me that stealing and lying are cousins. We have known of the former all along. Now we are being introduced to the latter\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was a blogger\u2019s take in Dominica Online News on the prime minister\u2019s assertion that neither he nor his administration was seeking to influence the police in the exercise of their duty in the investigation of the arson that almost took the life of former magistrate GON Emmanuel. Other bloggers expressed similar sentiments.<\/p>\n
The prime minister\u2019s supporters, predictably, wrote in his defense but the fact that we are having this conversation about the honesty and trustworthiness of the prime minister is itself troubling especially if we contrast his reputation with that of former Prime Minister Eugenia Charles, or Patrick John for that matter.<\/p>\n
By any measure this is a damning indictment of a prime minister who is struggling to maintain the confidence of the public amid allegations that he is not an honest dealer. To be sure, the prime minister\u2019s reputation for ethical behavior is cause for alarm, not just to his critics but also to a significant segment of his supporters who must be now questioning whether their political party is winning the battle t the polls but is losing the war for the hearts and minds of the younger generation.<\/p>\n
The young are raised to be honest and God fearing, instructed in civic lessons about the virtues of working diligently and selflessly to uphold the standards of good citizenship. And then they are confronted with the specter of a prime minister about whom there is severe doubt his ethical conduct and his guardianship of the nation\u2019s resources. This dichotomy between what is expected of them and what they perceive to be the modus operandi of the highest elected officer of our democracy is debilitating and is bound to have a corrosive effect on the psyche of the youth as they contemplate their role in the nation\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
To be fair, the problem of lack of trust in leadership is not confined solely to Dominica. There seems to be a trust deficit in some of the most venerable institutions of our day. A lot has been written about the appalling behavior of renegade priests who sexually abuse minors entrusted to their care and the inadequate response of the upper echelons of the Catholic Church to both police its priests and to compensate victims of their abuse.<\/p>\n
Nor can we forget the record of financial scandals on Wall Street where financial professionals have abused their power to defraud home buyers and investors. The few who have gone to jail, the former leaders of the defunct World Com and Enron are the exception when you consider the long list of victims and anecdotes of happy scammers laughing all the way to the bank while leaving their prey to nurse their wounds without any hope of recovery or redress.<\/p>\n
The list is endless. The suffering in their wake is unquantifiable.<\/p>\n
But back to Dominica. We must never rest until there is a severe price to be paid when public officials abuse their trust for personal gain. We cannot change human nature but we can at least ensure that there is a painful price to be paid by the transgressors for lying, public deception and misappropriation of the nation\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n
Lastly but significantly, we need to weigh the comments of the victim of the arson which is calling the reputation of the police into question. Mr. GON Emmanuel, in an interview broadcast over the nation\u2019s air waves, called the police commissioner, Mr. Carette, a LIAR. This was in response to the commissioner asserting that Mr. Emmanuel was not cooperating with the investigation.<\/p>\n
This is clearly the first time that a police commissioner, to my knowledge, had his reputation and credibility so publicly challenged. He may see it as an insult to him personally, but the greater insult is to the reputation of his institution, The Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force.<\/p>\n
And to the reputation of the prime minister whose assurances the public has not bought despite the rumblings of his supporters.<\/p>\n
This crisis of confidence in the leadership of the country will have unpleasant consequences in the future. I say this because I believe William Shakespeare was right when he wrote : \u201cthe evils that men do live after them\u201d.<\/p>\n
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the management and staff of Dominica News Online and its parent companies.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy mother once told me that stealing and lying are cousins. We have known of the former all along. Now we are being introduced to the latter\u201d. This was a blogger\u2019s take in Dominica Online News on the prime minister\u2019s…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n