The fallout from the VICE undercover sting operation continues to roil the political landscape. As your Eyewitness has said before, what VICE uncovered was a bunch of Chinese nationals (some may also have become Guyanese citizens) boasting about having connections “to high officials of the Government to smooth their investment plans in the country”.
Now, this has been a feature of governance since Man crept out of caves and established tribes and chieftains. Folks gonna always try influencing power-holders to do things “their way” – to have an advantage over their competitors. After all, going back to our own history – and those who taught us about governance – weren’t we told about the influence of the “West Indian Lobby” in the British Parliament?? Then later about friends and relatives getting their young’uns plum jobs in the Civil Service? And later still, having “lines” to get anything done during the Burnham dictatorship?? Does anyone believe those “lines” didn’t mean “payoffs”??
But that doesn’t make having “lines” right, does it? If it ain’t a moral question, then, at a minimum, it’s an economic one. We’re told that such payments are “economic rents”, and make transactions “inefficient”, since the market isn’t “free” to deliver the optimum outcome!!
The system is being gamed!! The question is what’d we do about it. Well, that beacon on the Hill for us on these “democratic and free market” matters is the good ole U.S of A!! What have they done??
Very simply, as with all institutions providing “checks and balances” and such like, the Yanks created an institution to deal with this aspect of human nature – lobbying!! And we’re informed: “The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 is a statute enacted by the US Congress to reduce the influence of lobbyists. The primary purpose of the Act was to provide information to members of Congress about those that lobby them. The 1946 Act was replaced by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.” Lobbyists to members of Congress have to be registered, and as of 2021, there were 12,137 of them!! Some even for “furriners” like us to use – as we well know during the attempted PNC elections heist of 2020!!
So, as to the VICE claims being VICE, they concluded that some “VICE” was being perpetrated – here involving the VP. Fair enough…these are allegations, and should be investigated. Both the President and the VP have supported such an investigation – “If people break our law, and they admit to breaking our laws, they should face the consequences!” But we need that institutional fix, since we’re on an inevitable spending spree that’ll attract these “middlemen” like bees to honey!!
Let’s introduce legislation to register lobbyists!!
…or ousting?
Well, whadya know?? We always knew, and they always knew, that the big powers worked behind the scenes to oust Governments inimical to their interests. Sometimes they didn’t bother to stay behind the scenes, like when the USSR invaded Hungary in 1956, and to show that it had nothing to do with “communism”, when they just invaded Ukraine. A big power’s gonna do what a big power’s gonna do – and deal with the consequences!!
But they don’t normally admit these behind-the-scenes manoeuvres – even when they’ve been confirmed by declassified files etc!! When asked, “Don’t Tell!” was the rule. Up to now!! But here came former U.S. Ambassador to the UN and former White House National Security Adviser to Donald Trump, John Bolton, declaring to the Congressional Hearing into the Jan 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that he’d helped plan attempted coups in foreign countries!!
Maduro over in Venezuela comes to mind – after Guido and other democracies had found he’d fiddled with their elections!!
And the lesson for us?
…sugar cane production
Sugar workers (who should know) say rats have overrun the neglected cane fields and gnawed away at enough shoots to significantly lower yields per acre.
Remember the “rat gang” in which Yesu started out his career? What happened to them?
