Incident in Ithaca is reason to postpone LGE

Jan 14, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
On a daily basis the newspapers and the television stations supply the people of Guyana with news covering aspects of their own concerns.
I cannot help but noticing the fact that our President David Arthur Granger is always prominently featured sometime showing his efforts to improve the wellbeing of
the people in Guyana. A favorite advertisement is the script on local Government Elections which is very interesting. This advertisement has left me with the feelings and perhaps rightly so that the majority of the people in Guyana are not fully aware of the purpose of having Municipal Elections and as a result show very little interest.
It is important however for every single individual to be fully aware of the purpose of Municipal Elections and how important it is to be provided with such knowledge. While the present Government must be congratulated for their efforts at ensuring that Municipal Elections are held as soon as possible, I am not too sure that holding such Elections in March 2016 would provide the Electorate with the full information to properly enable them to wisely exercise their vote. In the meantime the PPPC is doing its level best to frustrate the electorate with a lot of political nonsense.
My own view after careful consideration is to suggest that Municipal Elections should be postponed until August/ September 2016. A postponement would give the electorate a better opportunity to become more fully aware of all the issues surrounding
Municipal Elections and this would provide a better opportunity for the electorate to properly exercise their vote.
Let me give one example of the power of the Municipality. Take Ithaca the village on the West Bank of the Berbice River and not far away from Blairmont Sugar Estate. Many years ago the PPP/C Government made available a large piece of land next to Ithaca to a certain large rice Farming unit to plant rice and this position prevailed for quite some time but certain circumstances caused that unit to shut down its activities. Quite recently some people from Ithaca supported by relatives living in the United States of America started to plant rice on a somewhat large scale Immediately as they started they began to experience a water problem. Blairmont Sugar Estate with the assistance of the MMA blocked water from flowing from the Estate’s conservancy to the Ithaca rice farmers. At present police with guns patrol so as to ensure that the Ithaca rice farmers do not attempt to get the water that is needed for effectively growing their rice. The result would be that this coming rice crop will be a failure and the people who would suffer will be those people in Ithica who are of a particular ethnic group which are not usual rice farmers . The point I am making is that when usual rice farmers groups
were planting rice in the area water was flowing. Now that a new group is attempting to earn a living the MMA and Blairmount Sugar Estate are deliberately preventing this from happening. This needs to be looked at urgently. A similar situation had been happening at Mocha on the East Bank of Demerara where the sugar estate that control the water system in the area has made sure that water is not properly controlled so that the Mocha residents can succeed in farming.
While the Government on a broad basis is looking at the development of the
entire Guyana which is a very good idea, the local council has to take charge of the local
activities in the villages. Now most people do not fully realize or recognize how important it is to be involved in Local Government Elections and -my advice is that people need more time to be educated and it will do the present Government more good than harm in extending the time to August/ September, 2016 for the holding of Municipal Elections so as to give the electorate a better opportunity to make their choice. The 50th Anniversary of Guyana’s Independence is just around the corner and a lot of effort and time is being put into this event. Please do not overburden the people of Guyana by forcing a Municipal Elections on them in March, 2016
Jonas M. F. Coddett
Attorney-at-law.

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Incident in Ithaca is reason to postpone LGE

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