Dear Editor,
It took a while, maybe a bit longer than usual, but like the floodwaters it inexorably came. The Stabroek News of Saturday, the 22nd of November reports on page 10 that Local Government Minister, Norman Whittaker, blames the Mayor and City Council for the flooding. This is a Minister who imposes a Chief Executive Officer (Town Clerk) on a board of directors, (Mayor and City Council), encourages that CEO to disregard the Board and then blames the Board for the inadequacies of the organization.
Furthermore, this is a Minister who a few months ago said that the Board was incompetent and proceeded to personally supervise the spending of $500 million, without the involvement of the council and then blames the council for the flooding.
This is not too dissimilar from the situation recently where a feral blast was directed to the American Ambassador. When the wrongdoer was asked to account for it, she made it plain that the fault lies not in her, but in those who are urging constitutionally due (for some 20 years now), local government elections upon her government.
And again when a pure thoroughbred made a mess of himself in a most unacceptably obscene and obnoxious conversation, he blames the receiver at the other end. Yes…on grounds of breach of privacy.
Editor, are these people for real? Don’t these Ministers credit the public with some modicum of intelligence, or do they believe we’re all illiterate?
Having just spent $500 million for poor and sloppy work, the Minister has the gall and lack of shame to blame the city council. An approach which would have blamed the Minister’s CEO, Ms Sooba, would have been more sober.
Yours faithfully,
Khemraj Ramjattan