Dear Editor,
According to Sunday, January 4 Kaieteur News, ‘Khellawan Lall cleared to order mayoral elections.’ The Minister is seeking to have elections for mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and deputy chairmen of Neighbourhood Democratic Councils since councillors are fed up with dictatorship rule. Many councillors have resigned, died, or stopped attending meetings for years; only the yes-men have remained. This was indeed the situation confronting all the councils in the country twelve years ago.
Out of the spoils yielded by the system some benefit did indeed trickle down to those below. It is not likely that this came about as the primary objective of the local government system. And in any case, only those who hugged the soup bowl were likely to be favoured by these chairmen and mayors. Those who controlled the apparatus of the municipalities and NDCs felt therefore it was none of the business of the government to seek to modify the system so as to give every grassroots individual an equal starting chance. The imbalances within the system impose constraints, friction and inhibitions which render it an unacceptable one for developing nations, which have more to do and less time within which to do it.
The people vote at periodical elections, but for the rest they seem to look on from the outside. They may criticise local government officials’ actions, but they do so as spectators. They do not do so through any acknowledged right to be considered part of the daily decision-making processes of the local government system. The great forces which control the economy upon which their welfare is dependent are largely beyond their reach. Hence, their contributions are not as constructive as they might be. In effect, there is much formal democracy, but little practical democracy with the old wine in new bottles in the coming local government elections.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
