Dear Editor
THE report of “Mabaruma mayor accused of ignoring government projects” as reported in the Guyana Chronicle, September 08, 2019, is joined.

One should not doubt that this is still happening and does not augur well for the new understanding of what local government is all about, and should be in terms of its mission of serving the needs of citizens at the community or grassroot level.

But this reminds me of your editorial in a recent edition which spoke about arson to the canefield of a well-known Berbice, now closed, sugar estate and similar acts carried out to bridges in some communities. Of course, these are acts of sabotage, to which any stymieing of government projects that benefit citizens must also be added. The latter is indeed obstruction, and therefore falls under the meaning of sabotage.

Not long ago, there had been a similar report pertaining to the refusal of a reported 200 street lamps by the Corriverton Neighbourhood Democratic Council(NDC).

Of course, such acts are political in nature, with the clear hand of the PPP/C evident, as with the present situation at Mabaruma. One sees the dark hand of cronyism as employed by the current council. These are acts, which the current mayor and his council must be reminded will not result in a council working in unison and for the benefit of community and citizens.

It is obvious that the wrong citizen is now mayor of Mabaruma; as well as, that he has come to the municipality with an anti-government agenda, which he is carrying out by refusing to execute its many projects for the township. Such is the usual backward doings of political parties and their adherents, who are political antediluvians, and will continue to drown in the larger pool of murky backwaters of their own filling.

One only has to look at the PPP/C councillors’ campaigning against taxing the business community for raising much-needed revenues for a municipality that has a financial deficit, as an example of sensible governance being sacrificed on the altar of political opportunism and expediency. A similar pitch by the PPP/C had been made to the citizens of Georgetown during the course of the last LGEs campaign that taxes would not be increased, for a municipality that has not raised taxes for over 30 years, and which is owed multi-billions by recalcitrant citizens. Just how such a category of so-called councillors expect to give proper services to their respective communities is best left to their unrealistic thinking.

The Mayor of Mabaruma and his PPP/C councilors should be reminded that “ignoring government projects’’ will not benefit anybody, inclusive of themselves and political party supporters. But they will, in time, become the victims of their own blinkered understanding of local government. And if the citizens are affected by such political idiocy, then it is in their hands to make changes in the best interest of the entire municipality.

Regards
Mark Dacosta