By Jeff Trotman
The interest of the state is not necessarily the interest of people at the local government level and people have to rise to the challenge of ensuring good governance at that level to liberate themselves, Gecom Commis-sioner Vincent Alexander has said.
Making a presentation on “Local Governance, Promise, Practice, Opportunity,” at a media forum organized by the Linden Fund Trust on Friday last at the LEN Building, Republic Avenue, Linden, Alexander said local government began in Guyana with the abolition of slavery, the purchase of the villages and the instituting of management committees. The management committees conducted the affairs of those villages on behalf of the people in a process that articulated and represented effort at development.
Noting that the process failed and the villages sought assistance from the state system that caused the government to become involved in local government in our country, Alexander said: “We, therefore, have to learn the lessons from the failure of what they tried to do.”
Pointing out that one of the causes for the failure of the village system was that some people were not making the contribution required of them for the maintenance of infrastructure in the villages, Alexander said when the government became involved, it introduced taxes as a mechanism to ensure that the villagers contributed to the system.
He, however, pointed out that the interest of the state, at that time, was not necessarily in keeping with the interest of the people. “The state was made up mostly of the estate owners, not the majority of the people.
“There was no inclusion (and) having become involved in local government, the state sought to fashion local government to suit its own purpose. So, we always have to be careful with the involvement of the state. What is the state’s interest? Is the state’s interest at one with the interest of the people?”
According to him, there has always been resistance and a desire to return to the spirit of the first village movement but there has not always been the will or the effort to match the desire. Consequently, the ongoing challenge in this regard is to demonstrate not only the will but also the desire and the effort to ensure there is good governance. He stressed that it is the people who have to rise to that challenge of liberating themselves.
Governance
Alexander defined governance as the manner in which the affairs or the business of an entity, in this, case local authority, is conducted. He said in speaking about the manner in which governance is conducted, one needs to consider the core principles such as inclusion, transparency, ethics, openness and accountability. “When these principles are taken together, they represent what we may refer to as good governance” and when one speaks of governance, there is the assumption that one is speaking of good governance.
He said the second term that should be defined is the body or institution that conducts affairs in a specific community, which in the context of the discussion, can be applied to the municipality and the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), which are tiers of the wider government.
“So, if we have some understanding of what is government, then the question is the promise of what governments hold. So, the definition of promise in the context of the discussion would be the people’s involvement in their own affairs,” which can be done in three ways: (1) actual administration of the services and executing development projects delivered by the local government; (2) making decisions about local development and service delivery; (3) people’s involvement in the actual implementation and execution – i.e., involvement to the standpoint of inclusion. According to him, when these three parameters are met, one can refer to this process as maximum local government, or self-government. He rationalized that in an environment where people are involved, they are likely to make decisions that are beneficial to their community because they know what is best for their community.
He also contended that when people achieve such ownership in the development of their community – and are not doing things for the sake of doing them, they become involved in a developmental process that goes beyond the material and physical.
He said the process of people’s development, involving good governance, could be seen through effective inclusion and community involvement in decision making. “So, when we talk about inclusion, we’re talking about how the community can become involved in the local authority, in the municipality through being elected to and therefore representing the interest of the people and through the community, itself, being involved in the local authority … through various means” such as being involved in actual projects of the community, through consultations and being co-opted in decision making as well as the application of the principles of the rule of law in decision-making (transparency).
Highlighting that good governance goes deeper than transparency, Alexander explained that the concept takes on a more figurative meaning because it is supposed to represent the process of the rule of law, which means that whatever decisions are made should be based on pre-determined principles, established laws, established regulations and traditions so that people know that decisions are not arbitrarily made, giving confidence in stability in that there is certainty, predictability and comparability about the decisions that are being made.
Noting that it is a big challenge for organizations to have clearly defined procedures and clearly defined rules, Alexander said the practice also involves ethical behaviour, which is a critical part of good governance, allowing for the people’s affairs being conducted with openness. He pointed out that in this regard, the laws of the land provide for ordinary citizens to attend and observe meetings of the Mayor and Town Council. “It is public business and the public have a right to see how their business is being conducted,” Alexander said.
Accountability is an important aspect of good governance, Alexander said, and it is important to understand that it goes beyond merely abiding by the rules and regulations.
Alexander concluded that the parameters he had elucidated are relevant for the operation of the various tiers of local government as well as the central government.
