Dear Editor,
From the advent of the APNU+AFC coalition it would appear that the city council is not managed by all its elected officials and its statutory procedures. The name of Town Clerk Royston King keeps repeating itself, over and over again, each time through independent acts against citizens who need guidance rather than spasms of egomania. The presumption has to cease that there is a ‘Republic of City Hall’ independent of the livelihoods of those who trade in this town. Perhaps it’s time that both the Ministries of Business and Communities pay serious attention to this state within a state of Guyana. The recent Alexander Street to Bourda Street onslaught was prompted by a legal complaint made by a Robb Street business against vendor untidiness. What is curious is what entitles this business to the jurisdiction of an entire economic block ‒ Alexander to Bourda Streets. It was at the insistence of another business that the stalls of the Bourda Street vendors were destroyed, again without legal procedures being adhered to. Addressing Stabroek Market square was necessary, but its handling was undoubtedly disastrous, etc, etc.
The fact is that because I am a self-employed small business operator I can empathise with the effect the disruption in the flow of business can have on the very health of persons, as well as on fragile economies. Mr King and his compatriots at the ‘Republic’ are salaried employees and lack any empathy with this reality, and seem incapable of comprehending that things are very, very difficult for the small business economy of today.
Guyana for the last decade has hardly had an economy. This is where the Ministry of Business comes in, to direct the ‘Republic’ towards meaningful strategies. It is likely that changes in the employment sector will lead to growth in the small farming population that will require more display and trading space. There are already indications of serious problems concerning the dangerous contamination of fruit and vegetables for the sake of economic expediency that will need expertise beyond the ‘Republic’s’ capacity ‒ that is when the authorities in Agriculture do wake up or are awakened. It’s time to shed the small-minded nature of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Republic of City Hall, and get them to serve rather than what they are doing. I am wondering, where are the voices of the new councillors?
Yours faithfully,
Barrington Braithwaite