Dear Editor,
The recent pronouncement by this government that local elections will finally be held after so many years (14) is a slap in the face of the Guyanese nation. Nothing has been put in place as far as reform and change in the relationship between the central government and so-called ‘local’ government is concerned. In fact, the concept of a local or regional authority is a laughing stock, because everyone in Guyana knows that the central government hogs all the authority and has placed a committed and dedicated communist (Mr Kellawan Lall) as Minister of Local Government. Mr Lall is certainly not a reformer in any sense of the real meaning of reform and change; democratic reform is really about empowering local and regional components to rehabilitate the villages and village life which have been so destabilized by many years of centralism, the centerpiece of communist dogma. Since independence some 43 years ago, under PNC and now PPP rule, we the Guyanese people, have lived under some sort of communist /socialist diktat, which, in fact, has resulted in the concentration of power in Georgetown (centralism) while local and regional authority has become a charade.
Villages and village life should be the strength and backbone of a new Guyanese democracy, and the local and regional authorities should be given the necessary financial and moral backing by central government in order to effect real changes for the people in each area. But since they have been under the aegis of central government since independence, what we have is the opposite result, with villages disintegrating and the communal feeling of togetherness falling apart.
Minister Lall and this government are certainly not interested in divesting any power from the central government and transferring it to local and regional authorities, even when they were democratically elected. This is contrary to democratic practices in most countries, except those which practise communist or authoritarian policies.
An example of this ‘hogging’ of power can be seen in the relationship of central government (Lall) with the city of Georgetown where the Mayor and City Council have become pawns in the political chessboard of this government.
It is thus obvious that if this government is not really interested in the serious devolution of power to the regional and local authorities, then why is it gearing up for local elections when it was not interested in such elections for the longest while? The answer is obvious and clear: the reason is because it needs to prepare for the general election in 2011 and the local elections will give them a good sounding of how their supporters feel in various areas of the country, and time to spend huge amounts to ‘correct’ these feelings; to gauge the opposition forces and see how they are faring; and especially to see PNC and AFC strengths and weaknesses and force the opposition to spend and exhaust the resources they would need for the general election in 2011. Also, this government and its propaganda machine would like to convince the foreign community, in order to beg and borrow more money, that democratic organs are functioning when in fact, democracy is under severe stress.
That is why all the opposition forces in this country should unite and boycott the local and regional elections while husbanding all their resources for the real battle to bring change in 2011. There is not much time between now and the next general election, and the move by the PPP government to push for local and regional elections is an attempt to side-track the opposition forces from the clear objective of unseating this government and bringing real change to the people of Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)
