Dear Editor,
There is a famous statement and provocative poem written by Pastor Martin Niem about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis; rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. It deals with themes of persecution, guilt and responsibility and goes something like this:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out; Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out; Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me; and there was no one left to speak for me.
And that brings me to the main point of my letter, and that is my pleasure and satisfaction to see persons such as the British High Commissioner, Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan, Freddie Kissoon, the former Auditor Genera, Anand Goolsarran, and Consultant Earl John among other leading lights who have come out and criticised not only the crooked parking meter contract, but the corruption mafias that seem to be spreading through City Hall like an octopus, the problem the Council has been telling the citizens where their money is going and apologising for mistakes made, the fact that corruption is so pervasive there, the fact that the oppression of the citizens is getting worse with the various departments demanding more and more bribes from vendors to persons wishing to have their building plans approved, the plundering of Council’s resources by the gang of four; and the fact that the scale of the Georgetown Municipality’s financial haemorrhaging being so immense that the term corruption barely seems adequate to describe what is happening at City Hall.
However, there is a strange silence coming from a number of well-known social and political commentators, from other prominent citizens, from the legal fraternity and from some normally vocal quarters of civil society, regarding these shameful goings-on at City Hall and that takes me back to the poem above.
I urge the new and decent Councillors of Georgetown to join the Deputy Mayor without fear of being bullied and have a motion tabled and passed demanding that a full forensic audit be done starting with last year and going back for 20, I urge those honourable officers who are left at City Hall and who are aware of many of the unlawful activities that are being perpetuated by their colleagues to no longer remain silent but to speak up and speak out against these transgressions and I urge, citizens, business captains and other leaders in our society to say “Enough is Enough” the wanton pillaging of the municipality must be stopped now before everything is purloined.
Sincerely,
Deodarie Putulall
