Dear Editor,
Bartica will officially become a town on April 23, and it is imperative that we take a look in our rearview mirror to see how far we have come as a village, what some of our major challenges and successes were, and what best practices we can emulate as we forge a brighter future.
The major question is, did our leadership have a strategic plan to ensure we were prepared to take up the mantle of future leadership? The future success of Bartica is mainly dependent on our human resources. This entails our leaders having rudimentary training in financial management, administration at a minimum, and they must be strategic and transformative thinkers to ensure that we Barticians move forwards as a town. We have seen for fifty years that the current model of the political parties selecting our leaders strictly on political affiliation has resulted in limited success.
A mayor is similar to a CEO for a company, and if Bartica were a company would someone without the requisite competencies be selected to run the business? To be successful we need persons with the required qualifications, who are competent and also have a track record of getting the job done. It is time we changed the way of having politicians selecting our leaders for us. It is time we the people elected our representative and stop having the politicians forcing their choices on us.
For fifty years all of our local leaders were elected based on the proportional representation system; they were chosen solely on the basis of party loyalty. In most cases they were not equipped with the necessary leadership training and tools to succeed in their role, and as a result their performance record was checkered. For any municipality to be successful, it must have a sound business model, which will include having the right people for the respective jobs.
Over the years the people of Bartica have embraced and supported the respective political parties in choosing our leaders, but when the people have had no say in electing them, there is no commitment to support programmes proposed by the leader, because the leadership’s goals are not aligned with the people. Today, however, people are more informed and more exposed and know what they want.
I was really saddened after listening to a television programme aired on TTS Channel 5 on February 13, around 6.30pm. If local government elections are about consolidating party power, the political representative on the programme was making a farce of the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Act No 26 of 2009, which states that voluntary groups and political parties can also contest all of the seats under the constituency component of the election. I am sure what was being promoted is not the type of local democracy that President Granger is advocating.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
