Gratifying to witness Mayor Green’s sudden love affair with‘Democracy’

THE Deputy Mayor of Georgetown should tell us why she had supported a ‘no confidence ’motion against Mayor Hamilton Green in 2011, during which he was accused of ‘discrimination and being a ‘dictator’.
Old Kai noticed our eternal Mayor for life, Hamilton Green, recently graced the letter columns of the newspapers once again. The focus of his diatribe this time around was on the ‘National Conversation on a Clean Guyana’ hosted on Saturday 21, 2014 at the Sophia Exhibition Site.
We are informed by his ‘Holiness’ the Mayor, when the opportunity presented itself, referring to Article 71 of our Constitution which the three ministers present had sworn to uphold, that “Local Government is a vital aspect of democracy…”
So as Mayor, did he also pledge to uphold the Constitution or this does not apply to him? It is gratifying to witness Mayor Green’s sudden love affair with the word ‘Democracy’ which he speaks of so readily these days as if he is an expert.
You see, not so long ago the woman who would eventually become the Deputy Mayor of Georgetown and Green’s sidekick, Mrs. Patricia Chase-Green and Councillor Llewellyn John had moved a ‘no-confidence’ motion against the goodly Mayor. In April 2011, the media had stated that those behind the no-confidence motion accused Mayor Green of ‘discrimination and being a dictator.’
A dictator? Discrimination? This sounds like a different era.
The Deputy-Mayor and company may want to enlighten us as to what gave rise to such grave accusations and why the motion was not carried or defeated as Mayor Green is still around three years later at the helm of the M&CC. Does, she and the other councillors who attempted to remove Mayor Green from his post still feel the same way about him as they did back in 2011?
While we eagerly await these answers, let’s now focus our attention on a City Council Round Up column by the late Cecil Griffith in August, 1999 which was headlined, ‘Mayor Green cracking whip of GGG rebels.’ We are informed that the GGG members were those who broke ranks when a motion for fresh mayoral and deputy mayoral elections was thrown out without even a vote being taken.
The motion had noted that “in this new era of democratic culture it is desirable for elected officials to have their mandate renewed…”
But the article informs us that: “One of the GGG members had expressed concern that Mayor Green has embarked on a plan to silence the voices that are calling for elections for a new mayor and deputy.”
The article also quoted the GGG member as saying that “Green has won the battle, but he will lose the war…”
This does not sound very democratic to Old Kai, why would the Mayor try to suppress the renewal of leadership in the Municipality if he was so attached to the principles of democracy which he addressed in this letter to the media?
What this also illustrates is that there were at least two documented effort to remove Mayor Green from his post by some of his very own people but these failed when the joint Opposition used their majority in the Council to persevere with him.
The end result of this, however, is a direct reflection on the current state of the M&CC, bankrupt, broken and falling apart, much like Guyana pre-1992.
This now raises several other questions which we will deal with in the Monday column.