Some people will go to any lengths to protect their position. Referring closely to Mossi in John Lara’s play The Samaritan, write an essay to support this statement.

Some people exert great effort to protect their jobs. Mayor Mossi is willing to do extreme things to ensure that he does not lose his position as the mayor of Maracas municipality.

Mossi refuses to launch The Samaritan app in an effort to protect his job. He is poised to officially launch the app in Maracas municipality. Oddly, he puts off the launch since he knows that he could be exposed and thus jeopardize his position especially in regard to the case of abuse of procurement and delivery process. He claims he will launch it at his own convenient time. He orders Nicole and the principal to halt any activities regarding the app until further notice. The president is scheduled to launch it at the national level. Mossi insists that The Samaritan has to be stopped. He orders Nicole to write to the ministry of education to express his reservations. He expects a copy in his office in one hour’s time. The only reason he declines to launch the innovation is that he knows it might cost him his job. When corruption and other vices are exposed, Mossi knows his position as mayor would hang in the balance. (P1, 3, 12, 15-18)

Mossi intimidates Nicole and Narine as a way of protecting his job. He wants them to halt activities regarding The Samaritan. He demands that Nicole writes to the Ministry of Education to stop operations of the app. He raises his voice saying that he is the mayor given mandate by thousands of people and that his decision supersedes those of other government officials. He demands a copy of the letter in an hour’s time. He also warns principal Narine to expect a lot of trouble if his orders are not obeyed. He threatens both Nicole and Narine by pointing at them with his walking stick. The principal is so intimidated that she tries to compel Nicole to drop her pursuit. She compares her to a rat fighting an elephant. She declares that the school has nothing to do with The Samaritan App. This is because she feels threatened and gives up the fight. Mossi considers The Samaritan a political weapon meant to destroy his career. He visits the school several times in a bid to protect his position. He orders Nicole to delete every post that casts him in bad light. He warns her of dire consequences if the app is not stopped since it was damaging his reputation and undermining his entire administration of the municipality. The intimidation is aimed at protecting his job. (P16-19, 54-58, 71, 73, 129-130)

Mossi convenes an emergency meeting with other leaders after being exposed on The Samaritan. He wants to save his job. The municipal leaders suggest various ways to stop The Samaritan and save their jobs. Their suggestions include hacking, sending a circular banning the use of unauthorized apps, bribery, restitution, talking to the innovators or the teacher etc. Mossi later meets his dependable allies Bembe and Harvester when he learns that Ramdaye and others were planning to remove him from office. He meets them to plan on how to avert this. Mossi is simply keen on protecting his position. (P20-21, 25-36, 37-48)

Mossi orders Harvester to do various things in a bid to protect his position. He asks him to buy the newspapers from all the vendors. The headlines are extremely damaging. He also asks him to prepare a comprehensive press statement focusing on countering all allegations levelled against them. Mossi also asks Harvester to plan a press conference every day to give the impression that the municipal council was running normally. He also directs Harvester to issue a circular that no app should be in use in Maracas unless authorized by the Prime Minister or the Maracas Municipal Council. Mossi is hell bent on protecting his job as the mayor. (P21, 28, 42-43)

Mossi is forced to plead for mercy in an effort to save his job. Nicole is surprised when the mayor visits her seeking her understanding and help. He begs her to delete some negative information about him on The Samaritan app. He asks her to prevail over the students that created the app. He even offers to bribe Nicole and the students telling her to quote her figure, no matter how big. He spills the beans about the rot in Maracas municipality and incriminates his fellow leaders like Ted King and Seymour. He does this hoping Nicole would understand his situation and help him survive the onslaught in The Samaritan. His obsequious façade is meant to protect his job. (P60-71)

Mossi resorts to blackmailing the principal judge Jaden in order to protect his position. He tries to convince judge Jaden to convict Ramdaye and company. He plans to blackmail him using the grain scandal. He wants legal proceedings to be instituted against Ramdaye who is planning to remove him from office. He offers to pay Jaden for the trouble. Mossi threatens to blackmail Jaden who is culpable in the rats and other rodents scandal because of his association with Prime Orchard Farm. When Jaden is adamant to play ball, Mossi instructs Bembe to arrest the owners and the manager of the farm. He reveals a lot of incriminating information about Jaden’s mistress Ivy, Jaden’s bias as a judge as regards to his company, corruption etc. Jaden has no choice but to cooperate. Mossi gives him instructions to convict Ramdaye and Basdeo and jail Seymour and Ted. Mossi’s main mission is to prevent them from removing him from office through a vote of no confidence. He goes to all this trouble to protect his position. (P102-105, 108-109, 111-112)

Mossi even uses violence to try and protect his position as mayor. Ramdaye and company plan to hold a meeting to remove Mossi from office. Mossi plans to mobilize his gang, the Red Eagle Network, to disrupt the meeting set to be held at the municipal headquarters. Bembe plans to support him by getting his gang, Ghettoboyz, and some undercover police to support Mossi’s youth network. The head of Red Eagle Gang, Black Man, was to liaise with Harvester to get funds to pay the youth, buy mattresses, sacks and polythene papers to be used to create chaos and stop the meeting. The mayor manages to violently disrupt the meeting. Ramdaye, Seymour and Ted meet the brutal wrath of Mossi’s thugs. Mossi does all this in order to stop them from mobilizing the municipal council to pass the no confidence motion against him. He thanks Bembe for stopping the meeting. Ramdaye and his team plan to have a massive political rally in an effort to remove Mossi from office but he plans to counter this using his violent gangs. He pulls all the stops to protect his job. (P45-46, 74-75, 101)

In conclusion, some people will do anything to protect their position including going to unimaginable extremes.