Dear Editor,

OVER the years that the PPP was in office, we saw dictatorship at all levels, from local governance (NDCs) to central government. We saw and heard ministers and top PPP officials dictate what should or must happen at various levels.They did not allow the right procedures to take their course. Now that they are in opposition, they are still forcing to be dictators, as to what should be happening at the levels they control. I can recall that the minister who was heading the then Ministry of Local Government made an order for NDC Overseers to be transferred to different NDCs to work. The reason given to the Guyanese people was that the overseers cannot function properly because they were not living in the areas they are serving.

But this wasn’t the case. The then minister had wanted control of all the NDCs and municipalities, so he put his PPP personnel as overseers and town clerks at the opposition-controlled entities. We saw during that time when the overseers and town clerks were transferred, that developmental works started to fall in the community\villages. This is because of poor knowledge of the area they served and mostly because many of them have to do what the then PPP minister had said.

Today in Berbice, both Regions Five and Six, we are seeing the dictatorship that the PPP is portraying within the NDCs and towns that they control. They are directing their overseers and town clerks what to do. That is to stop or undermine all development works that should be happening within their areas of control.

I would like to remind Mr Anil Nandlall, who on his weekly TV programme here on NTN in Berbice, is telling officials of the NDCs and towns that they do not have to listen to central government or the subject minister,but can do what they want because the PPP put them there. Mr Nandlall should know that this is not the time to play with the local development of our people. This is the time for us to work towards a better Guyana.

Under the PPP money was spent like sand, yet not a single street stood the test of time. Not a playground was properly built. Not a proper drainage system was put in place. Bushes were all over the street corners and workers from the Community Enhancement Programme were used to clean places for PPP rallies and meetings. They were used to build stages and transfer all types of things for PPP public meetings throughout Berbice.

In Region Five — and I say this without fear — the PPP should be ashamed to bring a man who has no support in his own region to run Region Five and PPP and Freedom House affairs. That is not my concern,but what bothers me is the insult the PPP is showing to the people of Region Five, especially those that are their supporters, by telling them they are not qualified and fit to run the PPP’s affairs in the region. Isn’t this an insult to the many youths who say they love the PPP?. This shows total disrespect and the dictatorship they are involved in at the local level.

This brings me to the point where this said PPP supervisor called a press conference a few days back. At the press conference, he had several members of PPP-controlled NDCs in the region talking about works not being done in their areas. One of the NDC officials from Bush Lot mentioned the flooding and whereby machines were deployed but none was deployed into Bush Lot to assist.

Well I was ashamed to hear this gentleman saying this on national television, because it’s far from the truth. During the recent flooding in #30 to Golden Grove area, the Bush Lot area wasn’t under severe flooding, but those areas were. Over the years that the PPP were in power, they did nothing to assist the residents of those areas,although knowing it’s a low-lying area that can be flooded easily.
The machines weren’t deployed to clean drain after drain, but to clean the main outfalls canals\drains in the area and to assist in getting the water to recede through the Trafalgar and Bush Lot outlets\sluices.

The advice to this gentleman who sits on the NDC is for him to ask those people in his area that are blocking the small drains not to do so. If anyone had visited the Bush Lot area they would know of the poor drainage system that this government inherited from the PPP in that area. So that gentleman needs to educate himself as to who are the ones responsible for the poor drainage maintenance over the past 23 years of his PPP party in power.

This now brings me to another matter that was highlighted by the vice-chairman of the Bath\Woodley Park NDC. The gentleman said that works in the area cannot be done due to the fact that the NDC subvention is not being given for the year 2016.

Now this is another PPP-controlled NDC that works with what the PPP and the foreign party supervisor say to them. Since this government came into being, this NDC seems to always have 100% problems, no solution. It seems as if the subvention is a big thing, but it’s far from the truth. This NDC collects rates and taxes like all other NDCs. This NDC collects rent from the Bath Settlement daily market, also rent from the vendors that sell every Friday on the tarmac opposite the Bath pay office. They collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from rental of the Bath Community Centre Ground since they took office.

I can speak about this NDC more because I live within this NDC. The management of the NDC sees it fit to place street barriers for millions of dollars, but yet the streets are being destroyed. Why? Because instead of blocking the main access streets, they decided to block streets that the people have no use for.

I call upon managers of the NDCs to do the work they ought to do and to remember that the PPP did not put you there, but the people did. Stop undermining the development process and allow your community to benefit from development. The people in the villages are not stupid, they know that development is not taking place within, because the people they put there are listening to politicians that have to run from their own region because of non-support.

Regards
Abel Seetaram
APNU+AFC Regional Councillor
Region Five