The unbelievable country in 21st century world

May 23, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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What went through the mind of every decent citizen in this country when he/she heard the announcement from the Mayor that the parking meter contract will be given to each council member. Let’s digress.
The City Council is the parliament for the municipality of Georgetown. Its work corresponds on the lower level to what Parliament does. To comprehend the functions of the City Council one needs to understand how the upper tier of power operates, that is central government.
The national administration cannot operate in a vacuum; it needs to coexist with Parliament. To undertake a major project, the government takes it to parliament. It is hardly likely that the central government would sign a contract with EXXON and not take the agreement to Parliament. Even in the worst times of terrible government under Bharrat Jagdeo, central government sought parliamentary approval for many ventures.
The City Council makes policies for Georgetown. Once approved, the respective city officials implement policies. By what logic can the city servants who correspond to the public servants in central government sign a contract with a foreign investor to have parking meters and the Councillors did not approve of the final document? What is bizarre in modern government is that the contract was not shown to the councilors for approval before it was signed. Simply unbelievable!
Arnold Schwarzenegger was made governor of California because under the laws of that state, if there are sufficient signatures for a recall election, then the incumbent governor has to face another poll which is termed a recall election. This is what happened in California to Governor Gray Davis in 2003. We don’t have such liberal constitutionalism in Guyana.
The current City Council can legally be removed by law by the central government and an Interim management committee installed. It is inconceivable that Cabinet would go in that direction. It would seem that 2019 offers the best opportunity to vote out the present Mayor and APNU+AFC Council.
It is my opinion that this country has reached the limit of the bizarre in politics in the modern world when the Mayor who has non-executive power can announce to the entire country that the contract that was signed by herself, the Town Clerk and two other councilors will now be given to each councilor.
What each councilor was empowered to see and pronounce on in the first place, will be given to them as an act of generosity by the Mayor and not as a right they are entitled to. Surely, municipal government cannot get more atrocious than that anywhere in the world.
President Granger has twice rebuked the elected councilors in our local government system for non-cooperation. He even went so far as to accuse PPP councilors as waging political civil war. I responded to that pronouncement (see my February 14, 2017 column, “President Granger’s civil war theory.” by saying that the President is hardly in a position to lecture PPP actors in the national local government system when the nerve centre of municipal operation, the Georgetown government is far from democratic.
How should a country react to the parking meter contract announcement as the one we have in Guyana? But more importantly, should these people who signed the contract in the first place be allowed to administer the affairs of the capital city. If the answer is no, what can the Georgetown citizenry do? We do not have the kind of political culture that would see the taming of power in the Georgetown municipality.
One thing is certain; the boast about the return of local democracy has not worked. Mr. Granger can lecture PPP municipal authorities for their recalcitrant behavior as much as he likes, but the general view all over this country is that the ouster of the PPP controlled Georgetown Mayor and City Council has not brought a superior form of municipal democracy. On the contrary, the PPP dominated council had fewer authoritarian traits. How does one explain this?
Because the PPP Government had to live with a PNC controlled City Council. What happened then was that the Ministry of Local Government treaded carefully and Sooba as Town Clerk knew she was disliked so she too treaded carefully.
It was a give and take situation. There wasn’t a dominant hegemon. After the local government elections, a dominant hegemon was born – the combination of the new town clerk and the new mayor. In the new dispensation an irony was created. The new dispensation was supposed to usher in local government democracy. Instead Georgetowners got imposed on them the worst investment contract ever written in history – the parking meter paper.

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