Home Letters Evasive, disingenuous and misleading responses
Dear Editor,
I have observed a few letters appearing in the dailies under the signature of the Public Relations Officer of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown, as she ostensibly attempts the uncomfortable task of defending the incompetence, inanity and treachery of her colleagues at City Hall and the absolute manmade disaster they are creating for the citizens of Georgetown.
But her responses at best are evasive, disingenuous and misleading but that may be because she is just writing what she is told to write without properly researching the facts, does not understand the questions and concerns being raised or prefers to condone and champion the wrongdoings of her colleagues within the Council.
In response to concerns expressed about harassment of Cuban shoppers, rather than addressing the distress of these and other visitors to Guyana, she goes into a longwinded, nonsensical and extraneous epistle about how old the City Constabulary is, and the privileges it enjoys in theory because of some archaic laws.
That is irrelevant and of no interest to Guyanese nor visitors to our country. There are Police units all over the world, some which are older than the City Constabulary which are just as renowned for their brutality, and carrying out of the paranoid whims of immoral and tyrannical leaders. She is running away from the fact that the Constabulary has no responsibility for immigration and thus should not be harassing any visitors to our country, and that their ‘supposed authority’ ends at Cummings Lodge on the East Coast and at Agricola on the East Bank and therefore should not be armed and working at residences in Diamond etc.The PRO is under the delusion that the image of the Georgetown Municipality is merely fragile. She could not be serious. Someone should tell this lady that the Council has the worst public image possible and has been viewed that way for a number of years, because of allegations of corruption, nepotism, draconian taxation, incompetence etc.
But the biggest joke contained in her correspondence is that persons should call City Hall to report wrongdoings committed by their staffers. Are they blind, deaf and operating in some kind of bubble at City Hall.
Could Ms Lewis say what was done about the Canadian national that was “aggressively assaulted” by ranks of the City Constabulary a while back at City Hall? I speak of the lady that was invited to Guyana’s shores by the Social Protection Ministry to develop a social empowerment programme for girls and women, and who was assaulted by four female officers of the City Constabulary when she took her son to the City Council for a meeting with the then Mayor, and who was punched in the face, kicked about the body and dragged half naked through City Hall compound as they had ripped off her underwear and pants until she became unconscious and ended up with two perforated discs, a hairline fracture to the hip, and bruises and lacerations about her body.
Sincerely,
Shanta Singh