H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Georgetown City Council – The Newest Missed Opportunity

Jul 13, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

---

Kaieteur News – I extend my best wishes to the new Mayor of Georgetown, Alfred Mentore on his taking the reins for the city.  The same warm hand is stretched out to all other members of the council of Georgetown, regardless of whether they are of PNC or PPP heritage (or some other).  Residents and participants in the city could use a vibrant, functioning mayoralty and city council; one unhampered as much by politics, one that produces.  Our capital city, our image, our residents would be better.

The first order of approval to Mayor Mentore goes to him for saying the right words, about working together and the colors don’t matter.  They suited the occasion, sounded right, in what should have been a fresh start after some bruising years.  Unfortunately, that was not to be, for reality (real politicks) emerged, and things fell apart. Inevitably.  Almost, as if ordained.  For me, it is painful to note how the actions that may mean something fell far short of matching the mayor’s words.  I heard something from the new mayor about “signals” from the PPP, and that such were neither visible nor audible.  Nonsense! I say, sir.  Utter confounded nonsense, Lordship.

We can blame the PPP for a litany of wrongs that have harmed city, country, and citizens, and they are so many that the rest of the decade is needed to spell them out one by one.  For sure, it has stonewalled over necessary assistance to the GT City Council, along with the vital fundings, plus withheld the kind of healthy partnership, which have all severely impaired the council’s work, and retarded the ambience of the capital city.  Residents and citizens lost without fail.

When central and municipal are engaged in a running battle, citizens suffer.  Though the disguises of incompetence and corruption have their role, both were laid on too thickly and too long to everyone’s detriment.  Somebody has to break the ice.  I thought that the incoming city administration, with Mayor Mentore in the lead would know that, be about more than saying the right things.  Meaning, do the right thing, even the little ones.  Someone in one of the political parties must take the first step. There has to be a leader, a mayor, a figure who thinks of the higher ground, then clambers for it, no matter what it takes, for citizens’ sakes.  If not, then what do we have?

All that we would have left is what we live with, which is going round in circles, continuing the unending cycles of pointing fingers, of digging out the other man’s eye, and of leaving all of us more blind than before.  That is, if there is such a state (being blinder) still left in Guyana. I commend Mayor Mentore for wanting to and appealing to other councilors for working together.  It is taken at face value.  There is resonance to that ring, but when that is all there is, and there is retreating from going forward with the palpable, then what Guyanese were beneficiaries of is more hot air.  I am sorry, Lordship for this sharp preliminary greeting, but circumstances necessitate.

The PNC at higher leadership levels cannot speak (rightly) about the need for inclusion in Guyana, and then turn around and stand wrongly, strongly, for exclusion in those places where it has the upper hand, like GT.  It does not matter what the PPP did, or is doing.  Make a start.  Set the example. Be the precedent.  It is my position that the Deputy Mayor of Georgetown should have been extracted from the ranks of PPP councilors.  As a gesture of goodwill and good intentions, there would have been none better.  Now chew on this: there is none better at playing those spiteful games than the PPP; none better equipped at fostering and then getting away with that culture.  This plays right into the PPP hands, with returning the favor by the dozen. How long the partisan?  Division destroys Guyana, with perpetuation guaranteed.  It is about time that both sides start thinking of going in a different direction, if only for the good of the populace.  Think and then do.

Why not reach for the PPP’s hand by calling for a nomination from that side of the council aisle.  I don’t see that as a political move, but as one loaded with pragmatism, with the slightest opening towards possibly new beginnings, greater things that could lift all up and lead somewhere different.  Let the de facto leader of the PPP, the sole decision maker of the party, refuse.  PPP councilors should be on key committees to observe and participate in clean city governance, determine who is not.  They must prove their own cleanliness.  What is there to fear?  Why the objections?  The record would be complete with who said the first word, and then followed through with supporting action that speaks for itself.  It is time that we all talk less, stop wasting words that turn out to be empty of substance, and leave all in the same self-destructive place.  Somebody out there must be willing to aim higher.  I nominate Mayor Mentore. Now, go ahead and deliver, sir.

(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.)

 

---

• Alfred Mentore, Council, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Mayor of Georgetown

---