Today, at Cuffy Square, Cuffy will cry in his grave at what he sees

Mar 27, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I was painting the town with my wife last month in celebration of our 40th marriage anniversary (not wedding – we didn’t have a wedding; we just married each other at the post office) when I ran straight into the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan. Ronald is a longstanding friend and one of the ministers I feel is of better quality.
I told him it was our anniversary, and he made an amusing comment on the longevity of marriage. Afterwards I mentioned to him that I am seeing him at a most appropriate time. The day before, I wrote about a heart-breaking story of a very small businessman who applied to Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) in Ronald’s ministry) for a land permit to set up an auto-electrician workshop in Kitty.
Without visiting the location, they turned him down with Guyana’s most absurd explanation – Kitty is a housing area. In the column, I counted more than 200 business places in just four streets in close proximity to Pike Street where he wanted to set up. Ronald promised to look into it. The next day, I got a call from Mr. Saul, the CEO, who conceded that the particular area is not zoned for houses exclusively, and does have a large number of business places. He agreed to investigate.
Do I have to feel guilty knowing that thousands of others do not have the opportunity to meet with a minister and ask for a correction to a wrong done? The answer is no. What I did was right. It is for this reason; I think what will take place today at Square of the Revolution will make Cuffy turn in his grave. Thousands like the auto-electrician will be at Cuffy Square begging to be served, but they will not be.
In a full-page, coloured placement last Sunday in this newspaper, our new leaders since 2015 have arranged for the people of Guyana to come and meet with ministers and heads of vital government agencies to discuss problems they have with state services. The list takes in every ministry including the sub-functions of the ministry. For example, the Ministry of Communities has a housing department which is administered by a minister of state. Citizens are advised to bring documentary proof to substantiate their complaints.
I cannot enumerate all the institutions that will be at Cuffy Square today because of space constraint. There will be 30 of them, including GPL, NIS, GRA, Georgetown City Council, etc. Most of the ministers will be present, including the powerful Prime Minister. This is a gargantuan expression of political ugliness. This is a colossal manifestation of power arrogance. This is a huge demonstration of arrogant humiliation of an entire nation. This is a prodigious exercise of political deception. This is a large indication of mediocre leaders drowning in their own self-created miasma. This is stupendous stupidity on display.

1 – People will be insulted, because this is a show designed to fool people because an election is in the air.
2- People will be humiliated because of the shape of the event. You are asking people to take their complaints to 30 state receptacles of authority. There will be vast attendance and the lines will be long and winding, which will be too lengthy to canopy every person from the midday Sunday.
3 – The valid complaints will run into thousands and they will be left on the shelf for reasons that are obvious to anyone who has lived in this country the past ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years. CH&PA, the City Engineer’s Office, Lands and Surveys, Police Complaints Authority, NIS, Deeds Registry, UG, the various ministries, among them, have dozens of thousands of citizens’ requests over a long, long period of time, which have remained unanswered.
4- Don’t meet with citizens and crowd them in the tropical sun just to pledge your ear. Put systems in place in the bureaucracy so public servants, public sector workers and police officials can serve the citizenry, service that they need to provide their lives with the comfort humans are entitled to.
5- Can our leaders tell this nation how they are going to quickly facilitate those thousands after the Cuffy Square event is over? Who are they going to give these documents to so they can be fast tracked? And why were they lying there since twenty years ago?
The descendants of Cuffy and our indentured servants will be humiliated and insulted today. Today Cuffy will weep.

Correction: An apology to the Swiss Ambassador to Venezuela. The man in permanent detention at Diamond Police Station is Swedish not Swiss.

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