Across political administrations in Guyana there have been persistent concerns about the physical conditions that obtain at our municipal markets which, to say the least, have from way back, been downright deplorable. Here one feels that such conditions would hardly obtain in other countries where either the state or the municipal authorities were possessed of a greater mindfulness of public health considerations. The reality is that we have grown accustomed to the filth and squalor that attends our urban municipal markets to the point where we, the citizenry, rarely if ever take the time and trouble to bellyache over the issue, never mind the fact that the situation, in some instances, has long descended to the level of a serious public health hazard.
Both the Stabroek and Bourda markets are, unquestionably, on that list. Here it has to be said that successive municipal and state administrations have watched the deterioration without going much beyond lip service in their patently feigned efforts to correct the situation. Truth be told, the state of these markets have been a black mark on both central and local government for decades. Nothing short of costly extensive physical and phytosanitary rehabilitation, including the institution of protocols that compel the implementation of maintenance standards will remedy the problem. Here, there is no evidence that those concerned have come around to embracing those considerations.
There can the no question than that President Irfaan Ali’s recent early morning visit to the Bourda Market and his reported undertaking to provide “improved security infrastructure” raises the broader issue of conditions at our urban municipal markets, never mind the fact that the immediate issue of the extant security situation at Bourda Market would appear to have attracted immediate official attention.
The first thing that should be said here is that at a time when government is ‘splashing out’ on various petro-driven infrastructure upgrading projects, municipal markets, across-the-board, ought surely to have been on that list since, in terms of both convivial trading spaces and phytosanitary standards, most if not all of them have become degraded to the point of scandal. So that President Ali’s recent announcement regarding improved security and infrastructure for Bourda Market vendors ought to be immediately extended to all of the various markets, the coastal ones initially, and then the non-coastal ones immediately afterwards.
With regard to President Ali’s reported “negligence by the opposition-controlled Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC)” remark contained in the Department of Public Information disclosure, the President’s promise to focus with a certain alacrity on affording vendors and shoppers alike a more convivial environment in which to trade, is the priority here. While the President’s reported offer derived from what is described as “an impromptu walkabout” in Bourda Market during which “vendors whined about the lack of security in the area, leading to instances of robberies and other malpractices,” one would hope that this intervention by the state would extend beyond the issue of “security” and into the overall conviviality of the various Markets as trading spaces.
President Ali’s intervention would appear to focus primarily on “criminal activities… in the wee hours… being perpetuated by motorcycle bandits in the wee hours.” Leaving aside “the cries to the City Council” remark made in the media report on the President’s intervention, it would be a thoroughly worthwhile venture if the envisaged nocturnal policing exercise could be a joint one, involving both the City Constabulary and the GPF, even though this, in all likelihood, will take some measure of ‘sitting down together’ between the GPF and the City Con-stabulary. To go further, the undertakings on President Ali’s side, including the one that has to do with “erecting a containerized police outpost to monitor the activities around the market” ought to occur in collaboration with the Municipality, more particularly the Constabulary, since such a move could well pave the way for an enhanced relationship between the Guyana Police Force and City Hall.
In the particular matter of tasking the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development with “examining ways to improve the infrastructure of the iconic market square, to ensure vendors work in a clean and comfortable environment,” here again, one feels that it would be a good thing if such an undertaking were to embrace the municipality as well as institutions versed in the creative and restorative work that would render the environment both pleasing to the eye and suitably accommodating of the need for safe and convivial trading spaces.
It has been the vendors and shoppers who, over time, have been the victims of what has been an ugly – sometimes even quite laughable -‘political’ standoff between central government and the municipal authorities, the price that vendors and shoppers alike have to pay for what, all too often are puerile discourses that accomplish nothing. Put differently, the political ‘sword-fencing’ that has over several years ensued between City Hall and Central Government, over one issue or another, amounts to an enormous injustice to the citizenry, as a whole, since neither side usually shows the slightest interest in any initiative that leaves one-upmanship to one side.
Regrettably, the official release on the President’s walkabout at Bourda Market provides no indication (at least it does not appear so) that the incumbent political administration is prepared to ‘hold hands’ with City Hall on this undertaking. This is unfortunate since President Ali will surely know that a collective undertaking on a project of this magnitude, coming off of an intervention made by him, ought to do his presidential credentials a generous measure of good.