Support for the Capital City seems to be based on political considerations

I read the Editorial of Stabroek News, January 13, 2021 relating to the state of our Capital City Georgetown. The citizens of Georgetown, all of them deserve the accolade of our highest award, that is the OE. In this instance, meaning Order of Endurance. Today’s Stabroek News sets out the case clearly, and there is no need to repeat any of it, so well presented. In an earlier letter, I denounced the proposal to involve the Police and Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in this massive cleanup campaign. On that score, if my pleadings and those of others resulted in the Private Sector, alone, taking part in this massive clean-up campaign, I am overjoyed. But why should successive Governments, since the early 90s, not deem it prudent, and may I add, patriotic to give full support to the Municipality of our Capital City is beyond belief.

The Stabroek News and other Editorials, perhaps hit the nail on the head, when they posited that this lack of support for the City is based on political considerations. But this hostility to the Capital City has to do with what appears to be the response to citizens of this city, because historically, they never supported a particular political party. After several decades of this clear belligerent tug-o-war, one would hope that our political leaders, particularly now with substantial monies at their disposal, will display some compassion and decency towards Georgetown but perhaps we are expecting too much. Here, let me remind those who may have forgotten, and those too young to know, that after the 1992 elections and the political assault on the then Mayor of Georgetown, a decent Christian gentleman, Compton Younge; he was forced to resign along with other Councillors. The new post 1992 Government put in place an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to manage the City. Massive support was given to the IMC - money, management & machinery, so that they will look good and enhance their chances at the upcoming 1994 Municipal Elections. When the PPP appointed Chairman was leaving office, he noted that the City needed substantial financial support, because taxes, and a Government subvention, could not provide for the improvement of a City that had extended its boundaries. The rest is history.

The citizens of Georgetown were not persuaded, and the PPP only gained eight (8) of the thirty (30) seats at the elections. I now appeal to our Government to be magnanimous and support the democratically elected Mayor and Councillors in a structured programme to salvage a sinking stinking City. While we welcome the occasional gestures of goodwill, the only way forward is for the Government and City to ensure first, the eradication of all forms of corruption and indiscipline at all levels, second, irrespective of your race, colour, creed, political or other persuasion, and whether you live in the hinterlands, riverain or other areas, Georgetown is your Capital, our Capital City and when your family and friends, when strangers and visitors from afar come to Guyana, they will judge us by the state of our Capital. Next, a sustained educational programme, beginning in all schools, to sensitize citizens in their early life as to their responsibility to keep their homes, their yards, and their communities clean and regularly sansitized.

Maybe, if we expanded the protocols of Covid-19, Covid-19 could very well be a blessing in disguise. In spite of expansions and new developments, new housing schemes all over Guyana, the Capital remains the Capital, and therefore important, and ought not to be suffocated because of pettiness and political posturing. I close with the hope that sane, sensible actions will follow so that the City is regularly maintained and there will be no need for these sporadic, sentry directed clean-up campaigns. I close with two passages from my favourite PhilosopherPoet, the Prophet Kahlil Gibran “Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.”