A most abominable statement

Jul 17, 2010 Editorial

During the Second World War the British coined the statement “Loose lips sink ships”. The message was that idle talk could be dangerous, sometimes to the point of causing discomfort for others. A few days ago Minister of Local Government, Kellawan lall, said that he wished for a health crisis in the city because he wanted to get rid of the present Mayor and councilors, eight of whom are members of his party, the People’s Progressive Party.
The source of his wish is the garbage situation that is plaguing the city council at this time.
The cash-strapped city council cannot pay the contracted garbage collectors so the latter have withdrawn their services. The result is that the garbage piles have grown significantly in areas not known to have garbage.
Indeed, this could lead to the outbreak of certain diseases because of the breeding grounds these garbage piles create for flies, rats and other vectors known to carry life-threatening diseases. One firm, cognizant of the threat to public health, actually undertook to remove the garbage pile from its environment. But even that firm, John Fernandes Limited, is finding this task more than challenging than expected.
But there are many garbage piles in areas where no one seems inclined to remove them. The enterprising homeowners in the city pay private contractors to remove their garbage and pay scant attention to where these private people dump the household waste. The situation is fast reaching crisis proportions.
City Hall openly admits that it cannot cope with this development because it does not have the money to pay for garbage removal from the city. So the situation gets graver.
Minister Kellawan Lall, however, appears to be uncaring. He argues that the city council has too large a labour force and that this labour force could be cut. In the same breath he contends that the council is not doing everything that it should. City Hall says that it does not have enough people to do what it should.
It is common knowledge that the government has not been happy with the council. On one occasion it even tried to get rid of the council by seeking to impose an interim management committee. It had installed an interim management committee before and this committee appeared to enjoy unprecedented concessions and funding.
In those management committees in which the government places its own to manage the affairs of the various councils it is more disposed to making funds and other services available. City Hall is not so disposed although from time to time the government would pay its bills and make the release of the payment appear to be some sort of largesse.
It is against this background that Minister Kellawan Lall makes his statement. This is a Minister who took an oath of office to serve everyone regardless of race, creed or political affiliation. This is a Minister who openly says that his intention is to remove the current crop of city councilors.
It was he who played the Town Clerk against the rest of the municipality until circumstances conspired to lead to the dismissal of the Town Clerk. It was he who prevented the city council from increasing its revenue base. When the council sought to tax certain aspects of vehicular traffic Kellawan Lall said that it could not.
For a government official to expect that an entire city become ill for him to see the backs of the council is the worst demonstration of inadequate leadership.
The government-owned media never reported his wish for the health crisis. In fact, it was as if the statement was never uttered and the private media that reported the statement was dubbed to be anti-government. There has been no sanction and strange enough, not even the politicians took note of the incident or uttered a criticism.
Needless to say, Kellawan Lall’s colleagues make light of the matter by contending that he made his comments in jest. No public official in any part of the world would be spared sanction for such a comment. Guyana, then, must be the exception to the rule; the place where anything goes and where disrespect is the order of the day.

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