No longer able to stomach the breach of order and procedure seen these days in government offices, former chief of protocol, Ambassador J. Adolphus During hit the nail on the head last week when he described such behavior as unhealthy and detrimental to coordination and smooth functioning of any institution, much more government business.
Order, according to Wikipedia, is the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method. If things are done according to order, they can easily be identified or made to function in harmony as required.
Order also reefers to a state in which the laws and rules regulating the public behavior of members of a community are observed and authority is obeyed. But the disregard for order in government ministries and agencies, Ambassador During observed, seriously hampers and impedes official transactions aimed at enhancing national development.
Rev. During, who exhibited top notch performance as Liberia's chief of protocol for more than a decade, did not extend his disgust to the gross lack of order found these days in our society where people gather to do bank transactions or queue for commuter vehicles.
So many persons in such places in our society, bearing no respect for order and regard for other people in their midst, act and speak as they wish as if it's ethical to do so.
Perpetrators of disorder bypass bank queues in arrogant attempts to get served ahead of customers who had borne patience for their turn, according to the golden rule governing orderliness in service to humanity: First Come, First Served.
Though securities are posted in all banks in our country to enforce compliance with regulations, some disappointingly collaborate with unruly customers to bypass bank queues despite grumbling from other customers. They, instead, only help to foment disorder contrary to their functions--to keep and maintain order in the absence of fear or favor.
Another nauseating form of disorder is exhibited daily on our streets and roads where reckless operators and motorbike riders move with excessive speed anywhere as though they're exclusive lords of the roads. We observe such behavior of having no sense of civility which seems to be fast evaporating our younger generation.
In fact, it is rare these days to find young people gathered at motorbike parking areas or Hatai shops engaging in conversation with civility, that formal politeness and courtesy that should be in behavior or speech.
In such cases, insults and profanity come fast only because someone lacks the intellectual ability to articulate his stance on the subject under discussion. So, that leads parties to their conversation sending one another to 'crazy camp' or to 'hell', thus ending the gathering in disarray.
To exhibit more lack of civility in our society nowadays, when a pen-pen rider hits a motor vehicle, what comes fast is: "I'm sorry". But when a motorbike is touched by a vehicle, dozens of riders would immediately surround that vehicle threatening to apply jungle justice in a country, mocking referring to as "a country of laws and not of men."
Please, Liberia is too old for its citizens to be disregarding order which should already be entrenched. Thus, we call for the scrupulous practice of order and civility in Liberia, because the lack of these virtues is tantamount to indiscipline which in turn stifles progress.