No one who is interested in his/her country’s socio-economic advancement would have a problem with efforts to stamp out or reduce corruption, because it is one of major obstacles to the national development of any country, but what is disturbing and disgusting is when some, particularly politicians, set about to taint government and other officials with the brush of corruption without producing any credible evidence and instead use all sorts of conjecture and wild speculation.
It appears therefore that these persons are desperately trying to get at government officials to score cheap political points in an election season. Of course, it is understandable, and in fact it is part of the political game, that salvoes will be thrown but this does not mean that we should descend to the political gutter. We should instead make sound criticisms and provide plausible alternatives. Only in this way we would be able to win over support from other political constituencies. Getting into mud-slinging may bring some initial success, but in the final analysis, people will get turned off.
The late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan is a good example of always staying clear of mud-slinging and dealing instead with issues, policies and programmes and constructive criticisms and providing feasible alternatives. And we all know of his monumental political success.
So on this note it is most unfortunate and regrettable that a politician, whose political career died a long time ago, in an attempt like a drowning man clutching at a straw to revive his political career, has engaged in what seems to be character assignation.
Undoubtedly, this politician during the days of PNC dictatorial rule made a significant contribution to the struggle then, but his current behaviour will definitely wipe out the positives of his political career.

Another section of the media reported the politician as saying: “We will compile a dossier on corruption and we will place very close attention to places like the Ministry of Housing, where Irfaan Ali is carrying on in the tradition of his well known ancestors… Ali Baba and the forty thieves.”
This statement was made in the presence of persons gathered last Friday evening at the Square of the Revolution for a campaign rally by the newly formed ‘A Partnership for National Unity’ (APNU).
From the above statement it is obvious that this politician is trying to insinuate that the named minister is deeply involved in corruption without providing an iota of evidence.
But assuming that there is corruption within the ministry involved does it automatically mean that the minister is involved? The answer is certainly not.
What is clear is that there is no country that is corruption free. The nature of human beings will not allow this. Therefore, while a government may be committed to transparency and accountability, inevitably there will be officials within its ranks who are bent on corruption. In the US, which is supposedly the model of democracy, human rights,  transparency,  accountability and corruption are  huge problems.

On August 27, 2009, a Reuters report stated: “With its flurry of construction contracts in Iraq, Halliburton is in many respects depending upon Dick Cheney for its survival; but Cheney may not last long either, given his abysmal policy failures and the spotlight put on those failures by Lyndon LaRouche. LaRouche has dubbed Halliburton “The Greater Hermann Gцring Werke of Houston.” It has been clear for some time that Vice President Cheney has been acting as an agent for the international Synarchist movement, which was founded as the oligarchy’s counterattack to the American Revolution and the principles upon which America was founded. Cheney and Halliburton have been rightly attacked for the company’s war profiteering, but the reality of their corruption runs much deeper.

“The Vice President and his neo-con allies such as Defence Secretary Donald Rumseld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, et al., are agents of a power which is committed to eliminating the principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence and the constitution, in favour of a global bankers’ dictatorship. This same oligarchic power, acting through merchant banks like Lazard Frиres and Rothschild and other financial institutions, controls a large swath of Wall Street and corporate America, including Halliburton. Halliburton’s power does not flow from Cheney, but from Cheney’s backers, the Synarchist bankers. Cheney’s policy toward the people of Iraq is the same as Halliburton’s policy toward its asbestos claimants, and the same as Gцring’s policy toward the people in the Nazi work camps.”
The difficulty with fighting corruption is the capacity to unearth incontrovertible evidence that will stand up to the scrutiny of the court of law and merely using wild speculations to taint government officials will not suffice in the fight against this scourge. On the contrary, opposition politicians should help to unearth the evidence and bring it to the public domain. In this way they will be able to convince all and sundry that they are genuinely committed to fighting corruption and are not simply engaging in politicking.