Dear Editor,
When I see the weeping and gnashing of teeth as the Jagdeo government gradually increases authoritarianism in Guyana, I am reminded of the quote from Pastor Martin Niemoller(1892-1984).
“First, they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
“Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up for me.”
Dictatorship is a creeping phenomenon. It can be stopped only when its potential victims are principled and will object to wrongdoing whenever it occurs. Stabroek News made the mistake of excusing wrongdoing for several extenuating reasons.
It is now evident that the ruling clique intends to govern for its own gain and for the gain of its friends and that all obstacles, including Stabroek News, have to get out of its way. Much more repression is on the way if Stabroek News and the Opposition parties do not clamour for systemic change. The trick of the government is to distract attention by setting up straw men, like cricket and VAT which absorb all the criticisms of the Government within the context of the present system of governance. In the meantime, grass roots democracy is being suppressed by a dysfunctional local government system that is being entrenched by, for example, the publication of a news sheet in Region Six that deepens the dysfunctionality as people look to the news sheet and its publishers for solutions to their problems.
Another example of that repression is Mr. Robert Williams’s plaintive plea to the government to be eased of its financial constraint by begging for more government money. As my friend, Mr. P.Q.De Freitas puts it, that is what Jagdeo wants to see .You must grovel as Mr Williams is now doing.
The solution to Georgetown’s financial problems does not lie in grovelling. In the first instance, the city council should demand from President Jagdeo an immediate dredging of the harbour to restore drainage and irrigation to the standards that were achieved in colonial times and to remove the mosquito menace that has taken over the city. As a country boy who attended high school in Georgetown, I remember that the major distinguishing feature of Georgetown was that there were no mosquitoes. Mr. Williams should tell Mr. Jagdeo that anything short of a comprehensive drainage and irrigation scheme for the ity is unacceptable. This must be a major ity ouncil campaign.
The second major city council campaign must be the payment of taxes by the government for all government buildings, including buildings of embassies and legations. I had suggested to Mayor Green that there should be progressivity in the property taxes levied on the city property .This would mean that the government would be liable for huge amounts of taxes in respect of buildings such as the U.S. and Russian and Chinese embassies which do not pay taxes because of the Geneva Convention. However, these buildings give rise to city council costs and the government is responsible for meeting those costs on behalf of the embassies.
This approach will make the city council flush with cash. This approach is not taken because of sheer intellectual laziness and sheepishness in the mayor and deputy mayor.
The third campaign must be the change in the method of representation in the city from the present single constituency basis to a ward representation arrangement. Both Messrs Jagdeo and Corbin would resist this change because it reduces the authority of the political party leaders in respect of the elected councillors. But the ward representation arrangement makes the elected councillors more accountable to the citizens.
The fourth campaign must be the clarification of the respective powers of the government and the city council. The government should have no business whatever in deciding on contracts for city council works. I remember attending a meeting of the president and the city vendors when he mentioned that the government was withholding city council taxes because the city council was likely to pay it out in wages. Both the President’s arbitrariness and his contempt for the city council are deplorable. What should prevail is a preparation of a budget by the city council that is submitted to the central government for consistency with the national macro-economy. When the overall spending levels are agreed upon, the government should have no further say in the award of contracts as long as the city council follows the proper guidelines for awarding contracts.
Will Stabroek News champion this agenda? Will the political parties fight for these changes?
The creeping dictatorship can be reversed if steps like the ones outlined in this letter are taken.We have to move ultimately to power sharing at the national level but we can make progress also with significant changes in grass roots democratisation.
Yours faithfully,
Clarence F. Ellis
