THE Stabroek Market Square vendors were told to move to a new vending area authorised by the City Council, but found it impossible to begin to ply their trade in the new area because the city administration failed to uphold its end of the bargain. The affected group comprises persons who use vending as the sole means to provide for themselves and families, and participated in the recently held local government elections, which contributed to the present corps of city fathers and mothers. The failure on the council’s part to uphold its end of the bargain breeds distrust and loss of confidence between this body and the vendors. Consequently, the city is once again experiencing vendors protesting the manner in which they are being treated. And once again the vendors took their complaints on placards to the Ministry of the Presidency, apparently out of loss of hope and confidence in the leadership of the new council.
The evident disconnect between elected officials and the citizenry has to be addressed and corrected. City fathers and mothers should be mindful of courting adversarial relationships with those who have elected them, or who have expectations of them to improve their conditions of living. Any failure to appreciate this and act accordingly does more harm than good for the environment within which the council has to work and that of the city’s development.
As said in our editorial of Tuesday, Guyanese support an environmentally pleasing place, where law and order are held in esteem. Similarly, Guyanese expect in pursuance of these, where it requires the involvement of people, this has to be done with some degree of civility and respect for others. Where the problem lies between the council and vendors/citizenry is the manner in which things are being done without due regard for the concerns of those who will be affected.
The Town Clerk has since advised that the council has secured the proposed new location and this will be ready in a couple of days. The human element that seems to be lost on the council is that the vendors/people are an important factor in the restoration exercise and ought to be treated as such. To issue an edict on Thursday, whereby vendors have three days to pack up and relocate, fully well aware the place was not prepared, opens room for suspicion of intent and treatment.
Vendors have already expressed the view that the clean-up exercise was an excuse to rid them of their economic activities. City fathers and mothers would be hard pressed to disabuse that perception, given the failure to prepare the new location. The mayor, when running for the office, said her desire to serve in the position is to fulfil her dreams for the city. Her ladyship has to mindful in this environment where trust is lacking and created on the council’s part that, that dream is not misconstrued to mean the treatment being meted out to the vendors. Also, where the deputy mayor thought it fitting that an already volatile situation can be diffused in asking vendors to exercise patience to start vending, when in fact a decision was made without consultation with them and is affecting their incomes, was a missed opportunity to assess the gravity of the situation and to demonstrate compassion.

Vending at the square constitutes subsistence living. A day’s loss of income contributes to an inability to meet basic needs for self and family, including school-aged children. City Hall ought not to lose sight of the ramifications and implications of an action apparently not well thought out. Local government is the most basic form of democracy given its closeness to the people. Previously turbulent relationships between vendors and city leaders in the past serve as important lessons to avoid doing the same things or applying the same methods, given that the results they are getting remain the same.