Dear Editor,
In the Stabroek News edition of Saturday 16, some disgruntled persons co-signed a letter about an issue where they wanted the President to intervene. Their beef is the city council’s arbitrary move to implement a parking lot in the East Street area. In his reply, the Mayor ‒ not the President ‒ said that the council would be keeping the parking lot. In other words this is a done deal (‘East St paid parking to remain,’ SN, Jan 20).
Now if the Mayor had stopped there that would have been fine. But he decided that he had the right to talk down to the residents of the city. “People always want to drive everywhere.
They want to go to the hospital, market, everywhere they want to drive.” And since the Mayor knows everything, he knows that most of the signatures were from persons who weren’t even residing in the area. This man is so full of hubris it’s overwhelming.
The unfortunate thing about this entire episode, however, is the ability of the council to ride roughshod over the people of East Street. And the reason this is done is because those people who live in a democracy still do not know what democracy means.
If they did the letter requesting the intervention of the President would not have been sent. Citizens who have the franchise do not beg in a democracy.
Democracy is not only about voting, then going home and going to bed. No, democracy is much more than that. Democracy is a process that the citizen has to work at. Here are a few tenets of democracy:
- citizens’ involvement in decision-making (were the East St people involved or included in this decision?);
- the rule of law;
- the Freedom to dissent without fear of reprisal;
- education;
- those with power (politicians) are answerable to the people they govern and not the other way around;
- citizens do not beg, they demand.
Since parking charges in the lot are beyond the capacity of the residents to pay, then ignore the lot. Leave it barren; in other words boycott it. Leave it for the personnel that the Mayor identified. There are several places where one can park within the area, though one might have to walk two or three blocks to retrieve a vehicle.
The next thing the residents need to do is to get their bodies into the street. According to the reports, they claim to have over a hundred followers. Well, have them picket (which is allowed in a democracy) the Mayor’s house and the Deputy Mayor’s house and the Town Clerk’s House and City Hall simultaneously. You will get their undivided attention. Personally my feeling is that we should get rid of the present people who make up the city council. I am happy that the LGE is coming soon.
Yours faithfully,
Milton Bruce
