More reason for the Caribbean to dislike us

Nov 29, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The Guyana Prize winner, Sharon Maas, on Wednesday wrote a stirring letter in the Stabroek News about the nastiness that has overtaken Georgetown. She resides in Germany. The part of the letter that was sad was the part in which the writer expressed sentiments of returning to Guyana to retire after so many decades abroad and she cited the state of Georgetown as the reason that may deter her.
We could never understand what goes through the mind of Ms. Maas as someone who lives in one of the cleanest countries in the world, Germany. We could never and will never understand what goes through the mind of a European citizen when they see Georgetown. One can be absolutely sure that such people have never seen a city so dirty in peace times.
Every day, you think you have seen it all. But last Tuesday, I saw a bigger picture of a lost country. On the avenue on Main Street from the Hotel Tower to Quamina Street, the entire corridor was littered with rubbish. I was driving on Holmes Street and I stopped and looked at it. An eerie feeling came upon me – was this a country to live in.
Bet any money and you will win – the PPP Government is not going to clean Georgetown and for one reason only. In the collective psyche of the PPP leadership, Georgetown is PNC territory. If there are local government elections tomorrow, the PPP knows the PNC will win and even the AFC will beat the PPP.
The PPP says that the present City Council is controlled by the PNC. It is not within the rational mind of the leaders in Government to see that the state of Georgetown is destroying Guyana. For this reason, I honestly believe that if the PPP continues in office, Georgetown will be destroyed. The PPP leadership will not clean Georgetown.
The PPP leadership knows that the world knows that Georgetown is a rat-infested hole. They know that the diplomats know that. They know the CARICOM officials know that. They know that the Caribbean people know that. But we are talking about a mind-set that is prepared to destroy Georgetown.
For many Guyanese, the Caribbean folk don’t like us, because they think that our neighbours consider us the poorest CARICOM land, so they look down upon us. That is only one of the reasons. A majority of CARICOM folks don’t like us because they believe Guyana must be a lost nation to have its capital in such a state.
The horrible condition of Georgetown is one of the reasons we Guyanese are treated like pariahs at regional airports. The miasma that has enveloped Georgetown gives the Caribbean people more reason to dislike us.
Can there be a solution? First, there will never be a solution under the present Government. Secondly, local government elections can bring relief. There is no way a new City Council will remain unmoved. But there is a big but. When will we have municipal polls? I doubt very much that the PPP will want early local government polls. I doubt very much we will see such elections within the next two years.
A possible strategy is for the combined opposition to negotiate a budget deal with the Government. I don’t know at the time of writing if there are any consultations with the AFC and APNU over the 2014 budget, but I am suggesting to APNU and AFC to offer a novel suggestion to the Government. In exchange for some of the items the opposition will cut, vote for them, but in exchange, ask for an allocation to clean and desilt Georgetown.
The problem will be in the details. It is anticipated that the Government will not put the money in the hands of the City Council. That should not be a stumbling block. For the restoration of Georgetown, a tripartite committee (APNU, PPP, AFC) with civil society participation could be set up to supervise a tendering process and once that is done, then the tripartite committee could work along with the contracting firm to carry out the operation.
Cleaning Georgetown and maintaining it is not rocket science. It takes money, which Guyana has, and a vigorous maintenance programme.
Let me end on a note of pessimism. Even if the opposition makes the first move and proposes the tripartite committee to renovate Georgetown, I doubt the PPP will accept it. They will see it as an opposition victory. In the meantime, our young people will continue to leave, because they know Guyana is doomed.

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