Latest update February 7th, 2025 10:13 AM
Jun 06, 2023 News
Kaieteur News – Truth be told, I never had the time of day for Local Government Elections (LGE), which admittedly could be a failure on my part. But what did I lose over the years since returning home? I fixed my own drains, used to cut my own grass (in the public space), even helped with a pothole or two, and did what I could as my contribution to neighbourhood ambience during PPP years, PNC years, and now PPP years again. The experiences can be best compressed in the immortal words of that great American baseball sage, Yogi Berra: “same difference.”
As shared recently, I noticed a consistency with PPP efforts to do something for the better (cutting the grass and clearing drains), and I said my two nickels. Before that, when the PNC took office in 2015, a start was made to spruce up Georgetown, then the regular old-time politics took over and things rapidly fell apart. It is a problem that I labour to comprehend and fail abjectly: politicians and their being near to liquid cash. Notwithstanding all of this, LGE are now back with us in a matter of days, so what is in the cards, as read by me?
Colonel Jagdeo is on record as asking the citizens of Georgetown to give the PPP a chance. It is an appeal that has some political soundness, some resonance. By the way, ‘Colonel’ was an appellation of recognition made much use of by the old American Deep South slave plantation aristocracy for those who did heavy lifting and special jobs for them. It fits the Guyanese ‘colonel’ to a tee. But there are still those years that stick in the stomach when the city was left waterlogged like some modern Atlantis; when the decay was allowed to proliferate as if there was some secret desire for the Garden City to be converted to some vast dumpsite and landfill; and when the roads were given their own share of the PPP treatment. It was, and still is an extraordinary one, by any standards of observation. Despite identifying these few of many other political carnages inflicted on the citizens of the capital city, it is my belief that the PPP has a fighting chance of prevailing in Georgetown. There I said it! And for emphasis, I say it one more time: the PPP has as good a chance as it has ever had to emerge by the shortest of short noses in this rather tame LGE horserace.
I do not think that it will be much of a show, and here is why. PNC supporters are so jaded, so impacted by voter lethargy, and political malaise that I envision them staying at home, and sitting on their hands, with their index finger curled into an irreversible knot. Then, using the public knowledge that the PPP has more money than God (sorry if I offended anyone with the blasphemy), and can arrange numbers to suit its objectives, of which there is only one that matters. To borrow from American College Football lingo: winning is not everything; it is the only thing. I like that one. Next, and also related, the LGE margin of difference has been small. The good news is that it wouldn’t cost that much to eliminate the gap, and trot ahead to the line. Moreover, some citizens believe that the PPP in the driver’s seat in GT could mean ‘plenty’ money poured into the city, with the rest being history. That is, progress and development, PPP style. However, I peer at all this, there is the sound and smell of substance around it.
Now, I inject the personal into this little LGE affair. My residence has been visited twice by people in RED. I am still to see any people in green, or whatever colour is adopted nowadays. This has also been the reports that have come from other areas around Georgetown. Incidentally, though I didn’t speak with the PPP agents, I remind one and all that my days of voting are over. Twice is enough for me.
Regarding the PNC, there is word circling that it is confident, and not unduly worried. Maybe so, maybe not. Still, I recall that there was a fellow in Iraq who was of the same disposition. He went by the American awarded moniker of ‘Baghdad Bob’ and look how things concluded after all his outlandish characterizations and lavish verbal hijinks. So, fast forward, and it is next week Tuesday, and I predict the PPP painting this lost and forgotten town red. I do hope that we do not have to bring in Caricom, the UN, Bruce Golding, Ralph Gonsalves, and the successor to the most vaunted one, Excellency Sarah Ann Lynch. By the way, is she still in this prized primitive neighbourhood? If she is gone, then it is time that I start making plans. I think Moscow has a special appeal at this time. There are lots of snows to cool things down.
Now, here is the final scorecard for next week’s LGE: Georgetown -PPP. Linden -Maybe. New Amsterdam -perhaps next time. Sayonara!
Feb 07, 2025
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