H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Georgetown – thought the PPP won, hoped that it lost 

Jun 20, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – This parting comment on the 2023 Local Government Elections (LGE) focuses entirely on Georgetown.  I had publicly stated that it looked in the bag for the PPP, all but over.  Clearly, I still have much to learn about the depths of political and racial loyalty in Guyana.  Also, money may be mighty, but it is meager before considerations of ‘me, mine, and my own’, which is the American version of ‘apaanjaat.’.  On this occasion, it favoured the PNC.  But this is not about voter allegiance and voting patterns; it is about what a PPP LGE victory in the biggest Guyana political prize of all – Georgetown – could have represented.  It was of both the possible good, and what have been the definitely, totally, irreversibly bad.  I start with the potential for good.

A PPP LGE triumph in Georgetown would have put an end to the torturous wrangling between central government (Ministry of Local Government) and the Mayor and Councillors of the City.  Second, there would have been no need for any Local Government Commission to be chaperoned by a wicked stepfather, and unblinking red light (unchanging too).  Third, the budget gaps would have been history, with huge cash infusions to make up the difference being the standing norm.  Fourth, and related to the preceding, the much talked about and much feared property re-valuation with accompanying rates and taxes increase(s) to more practical levels would have been delayed for a few years more.  This should be considered as another subsidy by a considerate and compassionate PPP Government to its financiers, business constituency, and loyal (commercial) demographic; the fact that the bulk of residents are said to be PNC supporters gives a nice sheen to the rates and taxes moratorium-concession-subsidy. It defangs critics and others of that lost tribe of Guyanese.

Fifth, on the services side, dwellers and visitors to Georgetown would have experienced a changed city.  The PPP has the means to make Georgetown into a showpiece of its capabilities, seriousness, and visions.  Nothing is said about its honesty.  Drainage and garbage collection, to identify only two thorns in the nostrils, would have been regularized.  Other areas would have likely seen significant improvement with the cash spigot opened to full, and the moolah flowing.  As an aside, remember this one: the more that there is spending, the more that there is getting.  I point no fingers at my highly thought of PPP operators, but there is a word that begins with a ‘t’ that should come to mind.  I think it fits.  But who cares?  There would have been the appearance and appeal of a possibly refreshed, restored, resurgent capital city, and along with that the sweet ambience of a proud metropolis.  Regarding flooding, I think that the Dutch may have been engaged; after all, that would be talking of billions.  I can see from this far the eyes of some people in Freedom House lighting up, their mouths drooling.  Ha, ha; bonanza, extravaganza; and all to keep the city clean (and dry).

To my utter regret, there is a downside.  It is demonic and barbaric, dark and dangerous (even deadly), monstrous and leprous.  In the thriftiest of sentences: all the potential improvements cannot compete with, does not compare to, the ugliness and dirtiness that would be inseparable from the PPP taking Georgetown, and in whose friendly hands that would leave all citizens.

With Georgetown gone the PPP way, the long sought after total control and complete domination would have just about clamped the vise.  Think of an echo of that word vise, and if that is too difficult, then try what rhymes.  Do I hear somebody asking, ‘what about New Amsterdam?’  Here is the PPP answer: what about New Amsterdam?  Nobody has to be Albert Einstein or dig up Steve Jobs to understand that snippet. As for Linden, the Venezuelans can have it, given all those behaving like Nicolás M in that town.  In sum, with GT for the PPP, it would be tyranny.  Nobody has to have hair on their head to appreciate what is meant.

We again have a taste of what despotism is about, and what leadership dissolution looks like.  So, why tempt fate and go to the extreme by putting all the marbles in the redshirted man hand?  As limited as the PNC is (it is), “leh de ting stay rite weh it deh.”  As Guyanese say: “ah gon bear meh chafe.”  To put this in a nutshell for my fellow Guyanese: I did not leave America to come and live in East Germany or to call things for where they really are in the Guyana of today: what was before East Germany came into being.

I prefer that the PPP lost, and the PNC won in this one.  I know I have to pay to clean my drains and fix my garbage, but it is another sacrifice to be endured.  But I did note with interest that the man of every Guyana moment, the Hon. Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo did announce that the PPP (meaning he himself) has plans for Georgetown.  See what I mean?  Don’t forget that I is yuh ‘brotha’, Bharrat.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• apaanjaat, Georgetown, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Local Government Elections (LGE)

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