The third worst crime in Guyana
Freddie on Friday
Kaieteur News
July 30, 2004
There has been a huge disagreement in Ethics, which is the branch of philosophy that deals with moral issues since the ancient Greek writer, Plato wrote history’s fist political treatise, entitled The Republic. The ongoing polemic in moral philosophy since early Greek times centers around the complex, intimidating question of moral judgement – value judgements - what is morally right and what is morally wrong?
This is one of the most fascinating subjects in the theory and study of human knowledge (epistemology). Space prevents an expanded discussion on the main contents and contentions in ethical philosophy. Suffice it to say that there are four broad doctrines in Ethics – absolutism, skepticism, relativism and subjectivism. We briefly outline what each is before we transport the theory into practice in Guyana.
Absolutism argues that certain values are not conditional on anything else. These values contain within themselves truths that have no dependence on other circumstances. They exist as a priori and are objective in their existence. German philosophy tends to produce great minds that argue for ethical absolutism like Karl Marx, Georg Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. The most evident doctrine of the existence of ethical objectivity is religion.
Next, there is skepticism that says moral knowledge is not possible, that if moral standards exit, they are not cognizable by the human mind. The three great ancient Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, were the founders of skepticism, though they were not entirely skeptics, far from it. Next there is relativism which argues that moral values are relative to situations, society and culture. In other words, ethical questions are contextual. The brilliant English philosopher, David Hume was the one who perfected relativism as a branch of knowledge. The fine mind of the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant and the erudite French thinker, Jean Paul Sartre have beautifully fused absolutism, skepticism and relativism in a way that is magnificently creative. Finally, there is subjectivism which posits that a moral value is like love – it lies in the eyes of the beholder.
How is all of this recondite excursion into philosophy relevant to Guyana? Well it all depends on your values. For me, certain values are absolute, one of which is human equality. The human mind must as an absolute value contribute to the DEMOS (a Greek word used by ancient Greek philosophers which denotes the community as an objective whole) for the creation of human equality. An act that undermines the creation of equality is an immoral standard. Now depending on your approach to Ethics you may disagree but this is my position.
If you look at Guyanese society you see the playing out of absolutism, skepticism, relativism and subjectivism. I postulate that the activities of organizations like the Guyana Human Rights Association, Red Thread, Women Against Crime among others embrace relativism and subjectivism which I believe militates against justice, freedom and equality in Guyana. If you open the daily papers, you see a fixed set of letter-writers. From the contents of the letters you can arrive at which branch of Ethics they support. Tax evasion is not seen as an immoral standard for a majority of letter-writers and organizations in this country. For me tax evasion is the third worst crime in Guyana after murder with malice planned and violent robbery. I put tax evasion ahead of rape, incest, pedophilia, narcotic offences, burglary, etc.
The loss of revenue by the DEMOS through the deliberate evasion of taxes to be paid to the DEMOS is an act that creates inequality and inequality is the most unethical of the negative values in life. The DEMOS starved of money cannot fulfill its human task of seeking the provision of happiness to the members of the DEMOS. The failure of the subjects of the state to pay taxes can lead to the eventual dissolution of the state and this forms one of the main pillars in the argument of Plato’s THE REPUBLIC. And even though Aristotle disagreed with Plato, he agreed on the compulsory contribution of the subjects to the upkeep of the DEMOS. Even a romantic philosopher like Jean Jacques Rousseau would have argued that tax evasion was one of the worst ethical violations
Let’s use a hypothetical situation to show how tax evasion is inimical to the absolute value of equality among the community’s subjects. John gets $10 from the DEMOS. He is taxed $5M for the continuation of the DEMOS. Jack gets $50 but evades his obligation to the DEMOS. The implications are there for you to see the threat Jack’s refusal to honour his obligation to the DEMOS poses to the very life of the community.
I was delighted when I read that one of my students two years ago wrote a letter to the press this week denouncing the soft approach to tax evasion. Sohail Jaikarran was a student that I saw a potential in to be a human rights crusader. He came to me last year or the year before (I think) and complained that he was refused continuing status as a student in one of the UG’s dormitories because he suspected that his interviewer didn’t like how he answered one of the questions. Asked if he would like to be a leader, he answered in the negative to the annoyance of the interviewer. Next day, he was told that he had to make way for another student. He came to me, we mounted a protest and he was taken back in.
It was really good to see his letter on tax evasion. This society is crying out for more Sohail Jaikarrans. Why can’t Guyanese see how so many social ills are created by conditions of poverty and that poverty is directly linked to tax evasion. The American politicians would probably rate tax evasion as the number one crime in their society
An elderly businessman had a relationship with a 13-year-old girl and that brought out all types of organizations denouncing the laws that permit such a relation. One newspaper ran the story for 15 consecutive days. Some lawyers got into the act and served private criminal writs. Yet these very organizations do not utter a single word about tax evasion. This writer is in possession of a letter in which a well-known lawyer from a prominent city requested an American company he did consultancy services in Guyana for to send his remuneration to an English bank account. I got the letter from a top official of the American company who gently asked me to expose it.
I have forwarded the letter to the Commissioner-General of the GRA and this is the second time I am writing about it. Will that payment be taxed? Guyana has begged Japan to build the new CARICOM headquarters. We begged Indian for the cricket stadium. We begged the Chinese for a conference centre. We begged the British to engineer our water system. Why don’t we collect the taxes due and stop begging?