On Tuesday, President Ali held impromptu community meetings in Lamaha Gardens, Campbellville and Newtown Kitty. He was accompanied by Minister in the Ministry of Public Works, Indar and the winning PPP/C candidate in constituency four, Alfonso de Armas-Archbold who had narrowly defeated the incumbent Deputy Mayor Alfred Mentore of APNU by a margin of 31 votes, 968 to 937. Interestingly there was a third candidate in the constituency at the June 12 local government elections (LGE) who secured 54 votes.
The purpose of President Ali’s visit was to hear from the residents, who had been mobilized at two points in the constituency at short notice, what their problems were and to convene a follow-up meeting the following Friday.
Declaring that he will be visiting all constituencies in Georgetown and throughout the country, President Ali said: “Our interest here, let me be very clear, is to make your lives better, is to bring improvements to every household, every community and make peoples’ lives better. That is my concern, how can we work with you to make life better, to ensure that you have a better standard of living? That is the only concern.”
At each location, the complaints were predictable: non-existent drainage, bad roads, no streetlights and attendant security problems, absence of recreational areas and clogged alleyways. With each problem raised the President issued orders and assurances; whether it would be for GWI to be called immediately, potholes to be filled by Friday or a report to prepared for his desk for the new week. In all of these exchanges, the President issued directions to either Minister Indar, Mr de Armas-Archbold or both.
One can only marvel at the energy showed by the President, his commitment to visit all constituencies in the capital and the ease with which he interacted with those around him. There is no doubting that he genuinely wants to see improvements in the lives of the residents of the city. The only dilemma now is how the President and his administration will interface with the new City Council which will emerge from the June 12 LGE given the recognition by all of the importance of local government.
Not knowing better, a passerby witnessing the scene on Tuesday might quite easily have mistaken President Ali for the new mayor of Georgetown with his councillor and Town Clerk in tow. That was however not the case.
If the PPP/C government truly intends to allow the new City Council to function as it should, then once the council is in place all of the matters raised by the residents of Constituency Four should ideally be channelled via City Hall where Mr de Armas-Archbold will be one of 30 councillors and answerable to the council and the elected mayor, not President Ali.
As in every other part of the city, the residents of Constituency Four demonstrated the frustrations with a council that has not functioned effectively for many years even though the deputy Chief Citizen resided in the area. They could hardly be concerned with government intrusion in the business of the city council: they want services to lift the standard of their lives and the communities they reside in. That is perfectly understandable. The government however has to be attuned to the need not to undermine local authorities otherwise the LGEs expensively conducted on June 12 would have been a monumental sham.
Oil and gas revenues have given central government enormous wingspan. The vibe that emits from it is that there is nothing that cannot be afforded and executed now – just as long as it holds the purse strings and takes the credit.
While PPP/C governments have hamstrung opposition-led councils, their task has been made easier by inept, inefficient and incompetent leadership at City Hall. If APNU intends to govern the city in the interest of all of its residents it has to act sensibly, not something that is necessarily a given. With 19 out 30 seats on the council, APNU’s first task is to work out who it will be putting forward as the candidate for mayor. No name leaps out to the ordinary observer but whoever it is had better be a candidate with a modicum of common sense and political savvy; someone with the President’s energy and with the intent from the outset to visit all 15 constituencies in the city. It must be a candidate, who aware of shortcomings either in financial or project management, could reach beyond the council and to the Local Government Ministry for assistance. Above all else, the city has to be run like a business, shorn of all of the internecine political wrangling and personality conflicts. The mayor will also have to build a rapport with the other side of the council and it would therefore be eminently sensible for the Deputy Mayor to come from the ranks of the PPP/C.
Thereafter, the mayor and the council have to get down to the nitty-gritty and not make it too easy for the government and the PPP/C to ridicule them. The new council has to explain in credible detail to the public what its revenue base is and what that can actually fund. For example, the city should concentrate on 100% garbage collection in each ward of the city and ensure that unsightly dumps are a thing of the past. Once both sides of the council are in agreement on the limits of the city’s financial reach then Georgetown must either be permitted access to expanded revenue through rates and taxes, higher valuations on certain classes of properties or all of them and larger subventions from central government in keeping with the Fiscal Transfer Act. It is straightforward, sensible planning in an arena of intense competition between central government and the council for management of the city.
With all the commendable interest shown by the President in Constituency Four one can expect similar visits throughout the city and the drawing up of a programme for improvements that would come under the ambit of the council and its councillors.
