{"id":56356,"date":"2025-06-27T20:42:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T00:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56356"},"modified":"2025-06-27T20:42:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T00:42:05","slug":"an-indisciplined-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56356","title":{"rendered":"An indisciplined nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
\nJune 21, 2025<\/em> <\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>In his Youth Rally address on August 30, 1962, one day before Independence Day, Eric Williams declared: \u201cI have given to the nation as its watchwords, Discipline, Production, Tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n

These words were delivered to the youths but they applied equally to every citizen of the nation. It would have been better if citizens had devised their own watchwords.
\n
\nIn retrospect, we have done a decent job in terms of tolerance although tolerance suggests a grudging, rather than a full acceptance of one another in our social space. We have not done well in production, but we have absolutely fallen down in discipline. In short, we are an indisciplined society.<\/p>\n

An egregious example of our social indiscipline reveals itself in the recent beating of a 15-year-old schoolgirl at Holy Faith Convent, Couva. A video shows: \u201cFive girls beating on the 15-year-old girl, at the gates of the school compound. They then dragged her into the road, where they continued their assault.\u201d (Express, June 19.)<\/p>\n

This was not an ordinary schoolchildren infraction. It was a criminal act. These five students conspired to attack and harm this 15-year-old student.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the editor, Modicia Martin cautioned: \u201cIt is more than time to take tackling school violence to the next level…Do not wait for somebody\u2019s child to be killed before something serious is done. It has been happening for too long. I have been saying for a long time: it is time to charge parents for their children\u2019s behaviour. Don\u2019t wait for this to get worse.\u201d (Express, June 12.) I agree.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Government revealed the \u201clegal\u201d indiscipline (perhaps greed) of the adults. \u201cThe Office of the Attorney General under the previous government spent $1 billion in legal fees, including $13.2 million paid to former AG Reginald Armour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal Affairs Minister Saddam Hosein disclosed the lavish payouts to \u201clegal\u201d luminaries: Russell Martineau, $38m; Fyard Hosein, $33.9m; Gilbert Peterson, $29.3m; Claude Denbow, $27.6m; Ravi Rajcoomar, $16.8m; Douglas Mendes, $15.7m; Michael Quamina, $15.4m; and Kerwyn Garcia, the President\u2019s husband, $14.6m.<\/p>\n

Law is \u201ca system of rules and guidelines, usually enforced through social institutions, that regulates behaviour\u201d. A lawyer\u2019s essential function is to interpret \u201clegal texts\u201d in much the same way a theologian interprets theological texts (exegesis) and a literary or historical scholar interprets literary or historical texts.<\/p>\n

Why, then, is a lawyer, an equal member of society, paid such extraordinary fees to interpret a legal text or write a one-page letter? What is it about the presumed wisdom of lawyers that determines the extraordinary fees we pay them, and why is it that they can hold the society to ransom?<\/p>\n

It is important to remember that some acts—such as selling slaves, sometimes for $40—were legal but they were immoral and wrong nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Similar behaviour exists at the political level. Members of Parliament go into office with a certain sum of money (wealth), but after five or ten years come out with extraordinary riches. Forty years I advocated the implementation of \u201cThe Law of Inexplicable Wealth\u201d, now referred to as \u201cThe Law of Unexplained Riches\u201d. It demands that a parliamentarian explain where and how she or he accumulated their wealth while in office.<\/p>\n

In Trinidad and Tobago we call it the Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Act of 2019. It\u2019s in our law books. Why don\u2019t we implement it?<\/p>\n

Williams described an essential aspect of democracy on Independence Day 1962: \u201cDemocracy, finally, rests on a higher power than Parliament. It rests on informed and cultivated and alert public opinion. The Members of Parliament are only representatives of the citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey cannot represent apathy and indifference. They can play the part allotted to them only if they represent intelligence and public spiritedness.\u201d<\/p>\n

On February 19, 2024, I remarked at UNC\u2019s Monday Night Forum: \u201cWe must hold parents responsible for the crimes their juvenile children commit.\u201d<\/p>\n

I referred to a case in Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan, USA, in which Jennifer Crumbley \u201cwas found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the \u2018gun rampage\u2019 of her teenage son [Ethan Crumbley] who carried out the state\u2019s deadliest school shooting. Her son was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing four students. The gun he used to commit these murders was a gift from his parents\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jennifer and her husband were sentenced to ten to 15 years in prison for their complicity in the killing.<\/p>\n

We praise Singapore\u2019s political system and call it a disciplined society. They implement their laws and are not afraid to use the coercive arm of the state to achieve their objectives.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t we prosecute those who break our laws (our children) and condemn and shame those who ruthlessly extract their pound of flesh from us (the lawyers)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe June 21, 2025 In his Youth Rally address on August 30, 1962, one day before Independence Day, Eric Williams declared: \u201cI have given to the nation as its watchwords, Discipline, Production, Tolerance.\u201d These words were delivered to the youths but they applied equally to every citizen of the nation. It … Continue reading An indisciplined nation<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[171,49],"class_list":["post-56356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","tag-selwyn-r-cudjoe","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56357,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56356\/revisions\/56357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}