LGEs are about empowerment of communities, changing lives

IT has always been contended that the test for the democratic credentials of the PPP/C would be the return of Local Government Elections (LGEs),especially a process of governance which gives ordinary citizens at the community level the right to choose their own representatives.This is in addition to having the right to make their own decisions without political interference.

This is the type of enlightened governance envisaged by the coalition government.It heralds an entirely new understanding of the meaning of local government– a gradual departure from the traditional dependence on central government, while reposing the power of change in the hands of citizens. Included among the many new highlights of this new vision is, allowing critical decision-making at the level of the region, municipality, and the Neighbourhood Democratic Council, regarding the dispensation of critical public services at the community level, such as sanitation services, financial services, raising of finances for socio-economic works and the all-important garnering of taxes for much-needed works.

Then there is the centrepiece of capital towns, the envisaged engine for driving socio-economic development of the regions,inherent in their communities. Implicit in these changes is the unmistakable trend of village empowerment, the purpose of which is to realise the socio-economic potential of each community, lifting many of them from a state of social and economic stagnancy, to one where the creative development energies will yield fruitful results and more, in similar fashion to their early developmental history of self-sufficiency.

Surely, these are indeed revolutionary changes that have already commenced from the ground, the grassroots; and that have begun to strike fear into the hearts of those who had been disregarding the wishes of citizens and their communities for over two decades, as they imposed the Interim Management Committees (IMCs) for political control.This, rather than realising that the municipalities were rebelling because of unenlightened policies that sought to stymie creativity, and new ways towards solving problems at their community level.

Local government is meant to be the centre of a state’s system of democracy. It is its main engine and the manner of administration that will determine the pace of central government. If managed well, it spells fewer challenges for the latter; but if not, the centre becomes besieged. In fact, it is one of the biggest fallacies of any central government, to believe that it can ignore the necessity of the system of local government, by either ignoring it altogether, or seeking to impose control for purely political ends.

It becomes a travesty of natural justice and a gross violation of the rights of the mass of citizens at the local level– be it region, town, or village.This happens when their medium for participation by citizens at the grassroot level is not allowed, or made to become ineffective for largely political and selfish reasons.

This is what has been the balance sheet of local governance in Guyana for far too long – a period of 23 years: denying citizens the right of being responsible for their community affairs, and open discrimination against any communities, because of what had been perceived to be their political affiliation. Since March, 2016, the nation has begun to cut its moorings from the putrid stagnancy of what was local government.

This means, the overturning of a system which had been shaped by the hollowness of lip service, and which did not serve the interests of the citizens of Guyana. Therefore, Guyanese must not become distracted by the efforts of those who are bent on stymieing the progress of local democracy that has begun to usher in positive socio-economic changes to communities, thus bettering the lives of their citizens.

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