Selfish leaders create many problems that affect citizens. Making reference to John Lara’s The Samaritan, write an essay to support this statement.
Many issues facing citizens of Maracas Municipality are a creation of self-seeking leaders. Leaders like Mossi, Bembe, Jaden, Ramdaye and Seymour lack consideration for the citizens and are only concerned with their own selfish ambitions. These result in many problems for the citizens.
Mayor Mossi creates many problems for the citizens of Maracas as a result of his selfishness. He selfishly declines to either award Alvita and Montano, the innovators of the Samaritan app, or launch the app. He cites far-reaching implications. He orders Ms. Narine and Ms. Nicole to halt any activity regarding the app(P16). Nicole was to write a letter to the officials expressing the mayor’s reservation about The Samaritan(P17). The Samaritan had been approved by senior officials at the Ministry of Education and experienced software engineers(P16). Mossi later misuses his power when he threatens Nicole and Narine(P19). Mossi is accused of municipal capture which is the worst form of corruption and abuse of office. He later owns up his mistakes and seeks Nicole’s help(P60). Owing to his selfishness, he wants her to eliminate some negative information about him on the app. He even offers to bribe Nicole and the kids(P61). Mossi is also accused of inflating costs of projects and presiding over shoddy municipal works(P62). Later, he orders Nicole to delete every post that casts him in negative light(P73). When Ramdaye and others plan to move a vote of no confidence against him, he asks justice Jaden to jail Basdeo, Ramdaye, Seymour and Ted only because he wants to save his skin. Never mind that earlier on he did not bother to have them convicted, despite having intel about their wrongdoing, accusing the judges of being worse than temple robbers(P67). As the overall leader, Nicole notes that the buck stops with him(P62). Everything Mossi does is motivated by his selfish interest rather than public interest. Thus, the municipality is rife with problems such as corruption, murder, theft, deceit and sexual perversion(P90). These problems affect the citizens thanks to Mossi’s avarice. Surely, uncaring leaders create problems which affect the citizens.
The deputy mayor Ramdaye is a selfish leader who creates a myriad of problems for citizens of Maracas Municipality. He is the municipal secretary in charge of infrastructure. Under his watch, the citizens have to make do with terrible roads in the municipality. The council pays a lot of money for the roads but only a few kilometres of roads are dug up. The contractor pours old black oil and claims the road is tarmacked. The roads look like abandoned battlefields ruined by detonated bombs and are so terrible that even tractors get stuck on them(P62). He fuels nepotism since only his companies and those of his relatives win tenders for construction of roads, constructions of bridges, drains and waterways. They misappropriate funds and do not do any meaningful work(P63). He also prints fake title deeds and sells ten plots to ten different unsuspecting people. He swindles many people including Bembe, the Inspector General of police, to whom he sells grabbed land that belongs to Maracas University. He has ruined the lives of countless people through his greed(P42). The citizens are adversely affected because of the substandard infrastructure. Ramdaye is a self-seeking leader since his family is involved in municipal projects and it does business with the municipal council. Such selfish leaders initiate serious problems that burden the citizens.
Ted King is also a leader that creates problems that adversely affect the citizens. Ted is the secretary in charge of health and environment. The healthcare sector in Maracas is in disarray. Hospitals today barely have any medicine(P9). There are no drugs in hospitals because of theft(P91). He invites bids for construction of health centres but due to his selfishness, only companies associated with his friends and family win tenders. Ted steals all the money budgeted for healthcare. He puts up site offices that look like cowsheds. It is said that he “ate” a whole hospital(P64). People also complained of noise pollution when he worked as a deejay. Apart from that, he also pirates other people’s music(P65). For his selfish interests, he tries to whip up racial and class prejudice in a bid to ouster Mayor Mossi. Many problems experienced by citizens are created by selfish leaders like Ted King.
As a result of Seymour’s selfishness, the plight of citizens of Maracas is aggravated. He is the municipal secretary in charge of planning and development. There is a public outcry over companies that bill the municipality huge sums of money without rendering any services. Thus, Seymour is accused of supply of air(P24). In order to exonerate himself, he proposes that they have a conversation with those posting damaging information about him on The Samaritan app and they pay them to stop(P24). He selfishly suggests that they get money from the municipal fund through the reallocation of budget line items. They can justify the reallocation of funds on the alleged need to address the problem of poor waste disposal since there is garbage all over the place and the drains are broken, leading to a serious health hazard. In reality, the public funds would be used to fight off the impending cases against them(P33). In the past, he has misused public funds through regular travel with enhanced allowances, sitting allowance for unnecessary committee meetings, loans and mortgages(P34). He insists on approval of a supplementary budget to selfishly obtain the cash or else they eject the mayor from office(P35). When elected, he was dirt poor but now he swims in stolen public money(P35). As an incompetent self-seeking secretary of planning and development, he is behind protracted delays in building approvals in Maracas. One needs to part with dollars to get building plan approvals. The inspectorate unit under him approves improper buildings because of corruption(P66). He is also involved in gang violence as the head of the Black Swan gang that is responsible for shooting, violence and disappearance of people. He also sells narcotics and has ruined lives of many children who have dropped out of school, become cabbages, roam aimlessly, lost their minds and even some have died(P67). He was voted in overwhelmingly after bribing voters using drug money. Indeed, citizens are affected adversely by the selfish actions of self-serving leaders such as Seymour.
Bembe, the Inspector General of police, is a self-seeking leader and as a result he creates many problems for the citizens of Maracas Municipality. Ironically, the Inspector General of police is accused of an array of crimes ranging from corruption, violation of human rights, drug peddling and extortion(p38). His hotel, Madingo Golf Club, is built on Maracas University land which is public land(P40). Bembe is corrupt since the hotel was built with money obtained from proceeds of corruption. He has transformed the police force into his own outfit for collecting bribes from the guilty and innocent alike. His hotel is now known as Motorists Highway Hotel owing to the fact that his officers collect bribes from motorists every day(P41). He is also involved in gang violence as a member of Ghettoboyz gang. Together with Mossi, he organized the senseless chaos and violence, in a bid to avert the vote of no confidence motion against Mossi who had promised to help him concerning his grabbed land(P45). Bembe also arrests an innocent Ms. Nicole on baseless trumped up charges of disobeying authorities and stealing the school generator. He alleges her phone signal was located at the scene of a murder(P94). On his order, two police officers violently arrest Nicole, cuffing her and dragging her on the floor. All this unnecessary harassment is an effort to conceal his criminal activities and avoid prosecution and possible conviction. She is later acquitted and released unconditionally. Lastly, Bembe misuses his power when he assigns a consignment of officers to support Mossi’s Red Eagle Network to cause violence and chaos in the municipality. They burn mattresses among other things thus degrading the environment. Surely such selfish leaders like Bembe cause any problems which affect citizens.
Jaden is the principal judge in Maracas Municipality but many citizens suffer because he is selfish. The justice system in Maracas is flawed. Ted King insinuates that with enough money, one can easily influence investigators, lawyers, prosecutors and judges( P33). The courts in Maracas are undependable since they follow the money more often than they follow justice(P44). The courts cannot prosecute the corrupt inept leaders since the judges are part of the syndicate. In fact, they are worse than temple robbers!(P67). Because of selfish leaders like Jaden, Maracas is undergoing destruction because there is no justice in the law courts(P91). Justice Jaden claims that he does not operate in a vacuum hence his thinking and action is influenced by the ethos operating in the society(P116). A company linked to him – Prime Orchard Farm – is linked to the rats and other rodents scandal. He is a shareholder in the company(P105). He sends his mistress Ivy to Mossi to secure a contract of killing rats and other rodents ravaging rice and cornfields in the municipality. When members of the municipal council reject the contract and insist on a competitive bidding, Jaden rules in the favor of Ivy’s company, Vertebrae Pest Control, a subsidiary of Prime Orchard Limited(P106-107). He says single sourcing was permissible in the public interest but in reality, it is only due to his avarice. His company Prime Orchard Farm, reared rats to undermine the production of corn in order to increase the demand for imported grains. Prime Orchard Farm is one of the largest importers of corn in the municipality. When Prime Orchard Farm is sued for being the source of rodents, he rules in favour of the company claiming that rodents are a normal phenomena. The cats they rear at the farm become wild and they eat chickens instead of rodents. Jaden also uses his office to amass a fortune for himself. Surely, selfish leaders like Justice Jaden create an array of problems that affect the citizens.
In conclusion, many of the problems facing citizens are creations of self-serving leaders like Mossi, Bembe and Ramdaye among others.
