Dear Editor,
Thank you for the publication of my letter captioned “The members of this Water Users Association were not democratically elected” (07.01.03). I saw the response from Mr Shiwsankar, an Institutional Specialist of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, Ministry of Agriculture captioned “Some 60 meetings have been fully advertised and held in the Canals Polder on all aspects of this agricultural programme” (07.01.05). I am sure the information contained within would have been welcomed via newsletter or within the public media by everyone.
I beg to differ with his erroneous conclusion that “the invitation for members of the community to attend the elections was meant, ironically, to allow observation of the democratic process”.
I hope the IDB sees it necessary to send someone from the local government to attend workshops on the democratic process and the concept that underlies the structure of governance.
Democracy is not an afterthought to be tacked on after two years to seem democratic, it begins and informs the process. What was done at the last should have been the first.
The whole process is flawed because we are members but we never received a written invitation. I heard of the process at an IDB workshop for packaging hosted by the GSMA. People do not always hear announcements via the loudspeaker since many are employed in Georgetown, the newspapers are usually more reliable. Bell ringing is usually done to announce a death, in this case it was probably the death of democracy.
It is difficult for persons who have not experienced democracy for twenty eight years and a survival of the fittest mentality for sixteen years to know the practice of democracy.
To quote Dwight D. Eisenhower, a true democrat and author of the World War II Victory, that is planner of the invasion that concluded the war: “It is dangerous to assume that our country’s welfare belongs alone to the mysterious mechanism called the government. Every time we allow or force the government because of our own individual or local failures to take over a question that properly belongs to us, by that much we surrender our individual responsibility and with it a comparable amount of individual freedom for the very core of what we mean by individual liberty is founded on individual responsibility.”
I have practiced my individual responsibility, I have questioned the motivations and the practice of democratic mechanisms within the elections. The ball is now in their court.
Yours faithfully,
Nerima Rasool
