Dear Editor,
The letter published in the Stabroek News of September 28 by N Whyte, under the caption ‘Suggestions for the city council and the government by N Whyte‘ deserves approbation and support, for it makes good sense. It ought to be clear that Georgetown, our capital city, cannot be restored without the optimum cooperation of the state apparatus, citizens, the commercial community and of course, the Mayor and City Council itself.
The suggestion for this cooperation is extremely laudable; however, there seems to be some reluctance by the government to do the proper and decent thing for our capital, which after all is still the centre of government’s administration.
I have on more than one occasion appealed to the President. Beyond that as recently as July 17, 2012, at a specially convened public event at the Impeccable Banquet Hall to which the government was invited, an appeal was made for the kind of cooperation referred to in the letters.
As a consequence of that meeting, I wrote the Head of State and asked for his government’s cooperation, inter alia, and I quote the three last paragraphs, “The gathering expressed a confidence that whatever fiscal adjustments may be necessary to Budget 2012, the Government can be assured of the full support of the Opposition in Parliament and citizens in general.
Consequent to the above, this letter seeks your Excellency’s immediate intervention to host a meeting of the major stakeholders to chart a feasible course.
“Please treat as urgent since we can ill-afford to repeat the folly of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning.”
Weeks after, we’ve had not even an acknowledgement or response. Concerned citizens, the likes of Mr Whyte should direct their efforts by taking an appeal to those good gentlemen in government, for them to do the decent thing and what good sense suggests.
One other thing that the writer should know is that even when, as I hope, we secure the cooperation of central government, a prerequisite would be a massive PR and education programme.
Last week the council cleaned the area east of City Hall, off Charlotte Street and also that empty plot of land at the junction of Church and Wellington Streets. I was satisfied that we did an excellent job in both places, but driving through the city yesterday, some set of persons have already started to dump garbage, caring little about the efforts we made to keep these areas tidy.
I and the council remain willing and anxious to work together, with the state, since Guyana can ill afford conditions of conflict and stupidity, but it takes two to ‘tango’.
Let us pray for a change of heart to save our city.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Mayor
