Dear Editor,
I am forced once again to react to this purported massive clean-up campaign initiated by President Irfaan Ali and involving the Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force and the Private Sector. All of us, in our right senses, should welcome any campaign which cleans an area that is filthy and untidy. They say ‘cleanliness is next to godliness.’ In the instant case over the past weekend, we witnessed silly steps of putting a plaster over a festering sore, so while our Capital was reduced from the Garden City to a Garbage City, no less a person than our Head of State, like Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, and one wonders where were his advisors. However, as part of their efficient and well-oiled propaganda machine, there is a letter written by Tara Singh, which calls into question my credentials and sincerity to a green environment, particularly as it relates to Georgetown. It is unnecessary to deal with the many inaccuracies contained and published in that letter by Tara Singh. The final paragraph which states, and I quote, “the M&CC should seek a rapprochement with the Government,” – is the greatest of all calumny and deception.
When I was elected Mayor, after the 1994 Local Government Elections, President Dr. Cheddi Jagan contacted me to discuss the City-State relations. The burden of his concern was a proposal to rotate the Office of the Mayor. I have, and will always have a high regard for Dr. Cheddi Jagan and I have always liked him. However, it was clear shortly after our engagement that other forces in the PPP did not want a harmonious relationship between the two entities, the City and the State. Subsequent events suggest that deep down in the psyche of the PPP hierarchy is a deep disdain for the whole idea of Local Government, that is, shared governance, particularly as it relates to the Capital of our country, where the ambition for political control of that part of Guyana has always failed, and there is, therefore, abundant evidence that they continue a debilitating strategy as seen in Tara Singh’s letter and other statements against the City.
When Bharrat Jagdeo was President, together we toured sections of the City, hoping to have some level of cooperation to make Georgetown, a Garden City. It soon became evident that for some folks, cooperation meant a master-servant relationship. As Mayor, with my vast experience in public life, and an activist of the PPP since 1952, I appreciated the need for cooperation and unity on local matters. For brevity I state the following facts, and ask the likes of Tara Singh to simply say true or false.
1. When the PPP installed Interim Management Committee (IMC) were about to demit Office in preparation for the upcoming 1994 Local Government Elections, the Chairman of that Committee, Dr. James Rose, even though in receipt of substantial support from the then Government (1993-1994), stated that the revenue base was insufficient to provide an effective service for the City. When I took Office, I accepted the wisdom of that Statement and proposed a Lottery to garner additional financial resources. At a meeting presided by the then Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who was at that time carrying out the functions of President, and in the presence of Councillor Philomena Sahoye Shury, the Late Robert Williams and our Town Clerk, our petition to establish a Lottery was refused by the then Government. Samuel A. Hinds said that his Government could not support a Lottery because the religious community would be up-in-arms. Facts and the truth, within a few months a Lottery was off and running and the City never did get one red cent. True or false.
2. When well-known Guyanese personality, Eddy Grant, proposed a massive project to utilize the Luckhoo Swimming Pool and contiguous areas, as Mayor, I was told not to proceed since the Government had a much bigger project. That bigger project must be the Mariott Hotel. Again, not one cent was given to the City Council for the ceasing of the Council’s Luckhoo Swimming Pool named after a previous Mayor, Sir Lionel A. Luckhoo. True or false.
3. By way of example, for all sorts of reasons, the PPP Government did not find it convenient to have Local Government Elections from 1994 to the change of Government in 2015. Evidence of disdain, a dislike for shared governance or local government once they control Central Government. True or false.
4. It took us years to get the Government to increase fines for those in breach of Municipal By-Laws, even after that, our Court Prosecuting Officer, Patrick Vincente, complained that to prosecute persons for minor Municipal offences consumes sometimes an entire day to dispose of one or two matters. As a result, I proposed to the Government, the establishment of a Municipal Court so that we can expedite prosecutions against offenders. No action by Government. True or False.
5. During that same period, the PPP failed to constitute the Local Government Commission and therefore, the powers of that Commission, particularly as it related to the appointment and disciplining of senior staff, was left to the whims and fancies of the Minister of Local Government. This meant that the Mayor and City Council’s Personnel & Training Committee remained stultified, the worst case being the appointment of a certain lady who was not considered to be interviewed for the key post of Town Clerk, and she was not qualified but appointed by the Minister, and who routinely refused to carry out the wishes and decisions of the Mayor and Councillors of George-town. So we had an unqualified person in charge of City Hall and using her iron fist, spending huge sums to build among other things, security facilities at her place of residence. True or False
The M&CC needs the three M’s – Money, Machinery and Management. No Municipality, No Organisation, no Entity can function without the three M’s. I noticed that Mayor Ubraj Narine has been taken to task for his comments on the Clean-Up Campaign, but those critics, including sections of the media, ignore the fact that the Government and Agencies controlled by the Government, owe the City billions of dollars. The above established examples show that the PPP set out to deny the Council of these vitals. I have already written, but will state again – the use of the Police and the GDF, particularly the GDF, in the present circumstances, was unfortunate and unnecessary.
When the GDF was established after Independence, I was aware that we avoided the use of the word ‘Army,’ because we did not want a “spit and polish military outfit” but a working Army. Apart from protecting our borders, they will be able to come to the aid of the civil authorities in proper circumstances, such as natural disasters, unexpected flooding and for example, when we ran the ferries or the power company, if there was a strike that denied citizens these services and facilities, the GDF, on instructions from the Commander-in Chief/ President, would swing into action. However, with respect to this recent weekend exercise, part of the role of the GDF is to assist the civil powers when required to do so. What therefore is the test to determine the intervention of the GDF to assist civil powers? There is no doubt that the occasion, or occasions, that precipitate the intervention of the GDF, on the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief, turn on circumstances that are beyond the competence and/or resources of the civil powers, in addition to “acts of God, “ such as natural disasters. That excludes man-made generated crises, such as starving the City Council of resources, resulting in the garbage crisis. Under such circumstances, the deployment of the GDF smacks of misuse and contrary to the GDF’s history and practice. In other words, when Civil Authorities cannot carry out their responsibilities but certainly not as in this case, where the authorities’ (M&CC) failure to execute its mandate is manufactured and created by higher authority. This task is a complex but achievable one.
Today, we note a massive deterioration in standards, and we now have an Army of people, some referred to as ‘junkies,’ who routinely litter and dirty the City. Sometime ago, the late Elvin Mc David began a project to nice up the City. The idea of the ‘Carrot and Stick’ was proposed, which I supported, but over the last generation, we have lost our way in the City. Last evening, a female member of my household witnessed a young man littering the parapet in Lodge. When spoken to he became belligerent and threatening. I called the Police and they responded in good time but by then he had fled the scene. A Constable who observed the happenings noted that this was happening all over the City. If President Ali and his advisors wish to help this City, he can use the resources, including the Police to educate citizens, from the cradle to the grave, about their responsibility to the environment and put an end to this debauchery of our City. Certain members of this Private Sector are not without blame.
A few years ago, I had arrested a man for throwing mess on a parapet in South Road. He claimed he was paid money by a businessman to get rid of the waste. When we approached the businessman, he admitted utilizing the services of the miscreant, but claimed he told him to dispose of it at the dumpsite. Further comment on this excuse is unnecessary. At a meeting with citizens, one family boasted that they do not throw their waste on the parapet but they throw it in the nearby canal. These absurdities and attitudes can only be corrected by a sustained programme of re-educating citizens. This must be a necessary first step if our President is truly interested in keeping Georgetown clean, good and green. Mr. President, Tara Singh, let us cooperate for Guyana and let us end this senseless, unproductive blame game. Throwing arrows at each other leaves the citizens as victims. The Youth Organisations, Political Parties, Private Sector and all Religious Groups need to work together with the Municipality to restore our Capital. If President Ali is serious, he must put an end to this charade, remove the band-aid philosophy and tackle the festering sore with citizens from their cradle to the grave.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Green
Elder
