POLITICS, OPTICS AND A CLEAN CITY

Which citizen does not want to dwell in clean surroundings? Failing to rise above petty politics yet again, a call for citizens to boycott a city-wide clean up campaign, was made by none other than the chief citizen himself. Mayor of Georgetown Ubraj Narine in his infinite 'wisdom' decried last Saturday's campaign which was organised by the government and Private Sector Commission (PSC).

The crux of his reasoning centred on the government seeking to undermine the authority of city councils by ensuring they are starved of financial and other resources, so as to facilitate the imposition of its own hand picked interim management councils.

Politics aside, how did the greater good of a clean city irrespective of who is organising and cleaning, escape the mayor? Apart from the PNCR's echo chamber, does he really believe his contentions resonate with the average citizen who daily has to ply through the garbage infested, foul smelling city?

The evident and widespread descent from Georgetown and its environs from "The Garden City" into the so-called "garbage city" began in the late 1970s, primarily bedevilled by petty politics and, yes the immaturity of politicians.

Historically, the mayors of Georgetown have been closely aligned with the ruling party. However, when the PPP/C came into power in 1992, this changed. The Georgetown Mayor and City Council largely remained comprised of opposition party members. Failure on both sides to put political affiliation aside to cooperate for the greater good, remains a primary reason for city hall and by extension the municipality of Georgetown, remaining fraught with problems.

In fact we had the perfect storm of political one upmanship and economic decline colliding. When the economic state of the country began to decline, so too did municipal services. By the 1980s, the regular collection of solid garbage became sporadic. Additionally, city drains, canals, parapets, bridges and roads were not being properly maintained. Public buildings were no exception. The markets fell into a state of disrepair and so too did city hall.

Over the years, the lament from various mayors and councillors generally involved the lack of government subvention. As per the Municipal and District Councils Act Chapter 28:01, municipalities receive annually, a subvention from the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. The aforementioned is a part of allocations in the national budget approved by parliament. This is generally earmarked for development projects. However, the collection of rates and taxes is meant to be the city council's main source of revenue. Unfortunately, over the years successive councils have been plagued with the failure of corporate and private citizens to pay same.

During the previous PPP/C 23 year rule, much of the work of the Georgetown City Council was stymied when the then PNC arm was sidelined and the PPP appointed Town Clerk ran the city. It appears as though in 2022, history is repeating itself with respect to the mayor and the government.

But irrespective of the government's dark levels of political machinations, the call to boycott the effort to clean the city is supremely misguided. A more salutary approach would have been for the mayor to express gratitude to the government for the initiative and, in the same breath, then inveigh against the starvation of finance to which it continuously subjects the council. Calling citizens attention to this one-off cleaning exercise which can never be a substitute for a structured maintenance programme should government deign to provide the requisite finance and support, will find more favour with the residents of Georgetown. But alas, the opposition true to form, continues to shoot itself in the foot.

The government too cannot escape brickbats. How can President Ali from one corner of his mouth talk about "one Guyana" and not make any noticeable effort to reach out to the city council, even if to have the mayor along for the photo op in which the president engaged, and rightly so, to demonstrate leadership by example?

Then there is the ubiquitous PSC that is adept at testing the political winds' direction and knowing when to position itself like a shirt button. It has perennially been the malefactor in shirking, nay abandoning its civic duty to pay its fair share of rates and taxes which, also contributes to the mountains of garbage that are ever present for harried citizens to surmount. No, the PSC is not blameless.

To ensure the council is not on financial life support, not only should the government honour its financial obligations to the council, but it should also use its influence on the PSC and encourage it to do the right thing of paying its taxes. Once the "captains of industry" do that, it will contribute to steering MV Georgetown in the right direction. No citizen will begrudge them the necessary photo ops they will crave for honouring what is in fact their obligation.

There is enough blame to go around ten times over for the sorry state of affairs of this city. While no mention has been made of the individual responsibility of citizens, unfortunately it seems that Guyanese have turned into litterbugs and appear to have lost pride in keeping their surroundings clean. An increase in fines for littering and the revision of archaic by-laws ought be addressed with alacrity.

The political intent of the government in initiating this one-off clean up campaign is patently clear for the blind to see. However, the calling for a boycott by none other than the person entrusted to ensure the cleanliness of the city, the chief citizen, is an abysmally bone-headed decision. Mr. Mayor we are not talking about boycotting a business.