Latest update April 17th, 2025 8:39 PM
Social Activist dubs failure to hold Local Govt Elections a “mockery of democracy”
– calls on Govt to fix “broken education system”
Even as Education officials, parents and their top performing children, who participated in this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) flocked to the Theatre Guild at Parade Street, Kingston, Georgetown, for a laptop distribution ceremony yesterday, Social Activist, Mark Benschop, commenced a picketing exercise outside.
The move represented another in a series of such activities undertaken by the aspiring Mayor of Georgetown, as part of his efforts to amplify the importance of having Local Government elections.
Social Activist, Mark Benschop in picketing mode yesterday outside the Theatre Guild.
Benschop intimated to this publication yesterday that he is on a mission to ensure that the President addresses the Local Government Bills that have been sitting at the Attorney General’s office for weeks.
“It is unacceptable; we have not held Local Government Elections in Guyana for almost 20 years and that cannot be defined as a democracy,” asserted a placard-bearing Benschop.
“The President is running around this country as though everything is okay, but everything is not okay…it is not acceptable to me and it is certainly not acceptable to most Guyanese.”
It is the view of the Social Activist that the Government of the day is overlooking the existing concerns about the Local Government Bills.
Benschop said that he is calling on the International Community as well as the Diplomatic Community to give ear to the existing state of affairs.
So unacceptable is the situation, he noted, that it has the potential of “driving away foreign investors…it is obviously going to drive away anybody wanting to do business in Guyana, because if we have a mockery of democracy then what message is it sending to the international community and more so to the (potential) investors?” questioned an irate Benschop.
But the Social Activist’s picketing action yesterday did not only focus on the Local Government Bills but also the unacceptable conditions at some of the country’s schools. According to him, “I am here to ask the Minister of Education and of course, her boss, the President of this country to fix the school system. We cannot have children returning to school, and the schools are not properly fixed; there are not proper classrooms for them…”
“I am standing out here because the education system is broken. Democracy is being misrepresented and I am out here as a citizen; I am not here because I have signalled my intention to run for Mayor of Georgetown but it goes beyond just that…This is something I have been doing for years” said Benschop.
According to him his action is fuelled by his love for country and the fact that he wants the best for it.
Justifying his move to adopt a picketing tactic, the Social Activist said that he is only continuing a trend that has been embraced by the Government whereby “they feel they have the right to picket and they have the right to coerce their people in the Ministries and the Office of the President to come out and protest…this is not a monopoly that the Government holds.”
However although he was not able to coerce any supporters of his own, Benschop insisted that he will continue his solo picketing action indefinitely. According to him he is prepared to continue his picketing exercise everyday alone even “if no one else wants to join me perhaps because they are afraid…” said Benschop as he likened himself to “one man standing against injustice.”
He said that he is prepared to follow the President anywhere to continue to highlight his concerns.
“I will follow him even if he goes to Haiti or if he goes to Canada. He has to fix the broken education system in Guyana and he has to ensure that we have a proper democracy by the holding of Local Government elections; it is a must!”
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