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City Hall woes can only be solved with Local Government Elections

Jun 02, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
The current dispensation in the local governance system exposes the fact that the present regime does not understand the local needs and priorities of the people and how out of touch they are with the ordinary people.  Representative democracy, through periodic elections, is a crude but the best alternative at establishing a proper understanding of those needs and priorities at the local level.
Why would the Ramotar administration deny any group of Guyanese the chance to effectively work with the people at the local level to remove basic irritants from their life – garbage, nasty drains, unkempt parapets etc.? A renewed Local Government system offers the best opportunity for citizens to participate, particularly the poor, in the decision-making process.  Why does the PPP have a problem with that?  We will tell you why?
1. The PPP sponsored internal polls reveal that they will lose badly at Local Government Elections because their traditional base of supporters are fed up with their handling of the economy, their inability to solve crime and reduce corruption but above all, their arrogance of not listening to the complaints of the masses. Although some will stay in their camp as a result of ethnic insecurity, they are scared to test the political waters because the electoral tsunami that faces them in the Local Government Elections will all but destroy their chance of recovering the 51 percent at the national level.  The PPP sponsored polls show that former strong holds like Rose Hall and Corriverton will definitely abandon the PPP in Local Government Elections.  NDCs such as Whim/Bloomfield in the Corentyne and Rosignol/Zeelught in West Berbice, which the PPP won resoundingly in 1994, will also abandon them in any new Local Government Elections. By delaying the Local Government Elections, the PPP is hoping to repair the political damage but every day that goes by, it gets worst for them.  So the PPP will drag this out until 2016 where they will hold the General Elections.
2.   Karma is a bitch and history will show that the PPP used its minority status to try to keep the PNC out of Georgetown in 1994 and the dividends of that unholy alliance with the GGG (Hamilton Green) will haunt them for the rest of their political existence. In 1994, the PPP as the losing party used political tricks and deception to get ahead in the Georgetown City Council.
But let us share some history with the first time voters, since they must be aware of this PPP who today portrays itself as a victim when they are the most tyrannical oppressors, even worse than Burnham’s PNC.
On August 13, 1994, after much backroom negotiation between the PPP (mainly Ms Sahoye-Shury) and the GGG under Hamilton Green, President Jagan invited the GGG Leader (Green) and the PNC Leader (Hoyte) at separate times to arrive at an arrangement with the PPP on the City Government.  Hoyte, of course, was in the dark that he was just going for a photo opportunity while Green and Shury were going to the Office of the President to give the official seal to their secret deal to shut the PNC out. Green’s response to President Jagan’s invite at the time was he “would agree to meet even if Hoyte turns down the President’s offer”.
So today when Green says he is the best candidate for City Hall, you are aware that insanity has invaded places in people’s brains that were not occupied before.  Why should anyone ever trust Green again?
So in the final analysis, until and unless the AFC, APNU and civil society come out on the street to demand Local Government Elections; it is not happening.  This issue demands political leadership from Mr. Granger who was warmly received by several PPP supporters in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York on Saturday May 24. Granger and his team strolled down the popular Liberty Avenue where he met several Indian businessmen and women.
 Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish Singh

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