We want changes in the way Georgetown and the Central Government are run

Dec 04, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
There was a time when I shared similar views in the letters columns with Mr. Harry Gill on deeply disturbing issues affecting good governance standards during the Jagdeo second term, but on reading his missives of late, he has definitely had the political version of a Damascus Road experience.
I have been following, with tepid interest, his recent writings but especially the exchanges that ensued between himself and Georgetown Mayor, Mr. Hamilton Green, and although I hold no brief for Mr. Green, I was shocked to read Mr. Gill’s criticisms of the mayor’s management of the capital, which is far less dreadful than the PPP’s management of the government and country.
Almost every day, without fail, we are constantly bombarded with news
stories of government  mismanagement  and misappropriation of public monies, and Mr. Gill knows that had these stories been happening in any law-abiding democracy, criminal investigations would have been launched, indictments handed down, cases tried, guilty parties would be fined and jailed and their assets, if stolen, seized.
In his latest exchange with Mayor Green, “Cherish a friend who always tells you a harsh truth,” (KN, December 3), I was completely floored when he actually asked Mayor Green to produce hard evidence of corruption by naming people on some list the Mayor Green is willing to offer as a counter that City Constabulary ranks may be following the lead of ‘big ones’ in government when it comes to corruption.
Mayor Green had merely noted in a prior letter the following as examples of ‘big ones’ engaged in corruption: the latest Auditor General Report – NCN, NICIL – the drug contracts, the road contracts, and the Marriott deal.
This notion of asking for hard evidence in the face of a mountain of evidence is what I would expect from political spinners to deflect attention from calls for criminal probes, and given that Mr. Gill has literally sang with the choir demanding accountability and responsibility, even as names of culprits ripping off the state were being published in the newspapers, I continue to be in shock at his complete volte face asking for hard evidence.
Then there is the highly contentious Amalia
Falls Hydro Electric Project (AFHEP), which Mr. Gill and I wrote extensively about, as we raised serious questions about its feasibility, even as then President Jagdeo had Mr. Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall  show up in his office to sign a US$15.4M contract to build a road to the AFHEP generating facility.
Mr. Gill knows Mr. Motilall never built a road and today, the AFHEP is back in the news, this time because the IMF is asking hard questions. One Kaieteur News column even cited its publisher, Mr. Glenn Lall as a stand-up guy for Guyanese against the AFHEP, and then chided the parliamentary opposition for focusing too much attention on the Marriott Hotel when the AFHEP, if it goes through as planned, could have much greater consequences for generations of Guyanese to come.
This AFHEP is a very serious undertaking, indeed, and this is why we need to focus on the bigger issues that could devastate our people. As bad as Georgetown is, it will only get worse if we don’t address potentially more devastating issues, like AFHEP, because subventions from central government to the City Council could dry up if AHEP, like the Marriott, flops.
I am not saying that Mr. Gill shouldn’t address the state of the nation’s capital, and wish we all could join the choir, but the state of the capital is not just the result of mismanagement; it is the result of political fighting among the PPP, PNC/APNU and Mayor Green, because the PPP wants to take over the Council as it has done in other municipalities with PPP IMCs. In other words, do everything to help ensure the City Council fails so the central government could rush in on a wave of public dissatisfaction and install a PPP IMC.
I will continue to harp that the same PPP that argued the PNC denied Guyanese the right to free and fair National elections for 24 years, has turned around and denied Guyanese the right to free and fair Local Government elections for 18 years, and this is why Georgetown is stuck with Mayor Green. He is literally serving at the pleasure of the central government, because he is being used as a whipping boy.
As I look at the state of the capital and then I look at the state of the government, I say if we can save the government, we can save the capital. There is a political stench that emanates from the Guyana Government that is worse than the physical stench of the capital.
I am now forced to borrow some of Mr. Gill’s words and say that for all the so-called good things the PPP has done in its long, distinguished existence, it will sadly be remembered as the party, on whose watch, government was transformed from a veritable servant body of the people to a vile servant body of greedy politicians and their acolytes.
Then after reading Mr. Ralph Ramkarran’s latest to me on the challenges facing the PPP, I felt it is still possible the party has time to save itself and Guyana, but it cannot do so catering to the needs of its selfish, greedy and uncaring leaders.
Truly, while strong and visionary leadership is needed for the PPP to reverse its downward spiral in its public standing, I know of no leader now in the PPP who can provide that strong and visionary leadership, and maybe none exists with the will to rise up and offer change. We want a change in the way Georgetown is run and the way government is run. We want visionary and vibrant leaders.
Emile Mervin

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