This unhealthy alliance is untenable

Nov 24, 2017 Features / Columnists, Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The United Republican Party (URP) has long argued that Local Government should be separate and distinct from the Central Government. It allows for independence of thought, plans and objectivity. However, the APNU/AFC and the PPP thought best to run candidates that were backed and financed by the major parties. We see the big mess this has created – particularly in Georgetown.
The workers are striking because of not receiving their salaries. And why is that so? It is a known fact that the central government receives taxes, Lotto earnings, and other revenues from the businesses in Georgetown. Yet not a cent of those billions of dollars goes into the coffers of the Mayor and City Council. And so, you have workers and councilors who are not being paid, because the City is cash strapped.
We all know that the laws which govern the City were constructed by the politically and autocratically brilliant mind of LFS Burnham. The direct correlation between the City administration (especially the Town Clerk) and the Central Government, was a ploy by Burnham, to keep the City of Georgetown under the control of the Presidency. Did we not observe what happened with the Carol Sooba and PPP issue? At one point, she even refused to purchase gas for the then Mayor, Hamilton Green.
The current arrangement is not a progressive one. If left unchecked, the City of Georgetown will continue to languish under the Burnham-constructed arrangement – no matter which government takes power.
This unhealthy alliance between the Central and Local Governments is untenable.
Dr. Vishnu Bandhu
Leader, URP

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