PNC-led town council continues to betray New Amsterdam

President Irfaan Ali went to New Amsterdam to get citizens’ views on the modernisation and improvement of New Amsterdam. It was the President and his Government in a mutual sharing of ideas with citizens for their town. Suddenly, the Mayor and his sidekicks said they had their own plan for New Amsterdam. But I am yet to find a citizen in New Amsterdam who ever heard of the plan, other than the announcement soon after the President had his consultation with the people, that the Mayor and Town Council had one.
If there is a plan, the Mayor and Town Council of New Amsterdam never consulted with anyone in the town. It is, therefore, audacity, arrogance, and chutzpah for the Mayor to chide President Ali for not consulting with him when he and his colleagues in the Town Council absolutely ignored their own citizens. The President crafted a plan with the people; the Mayor and his colleagues concocted a secret plan.
Two weeks ago, President Irfaan Ali conducted an open consultation with residents, businesses and other stakeholders in New Amsterdam on the concept of a model community. The Government had indicated that several towns, villages and communities in each region will be in the first phase of a rollout of model communities around the country.
President Irfaan Ali, during consultation with New Amsterdam citizens, unveiled a sweeping modernisation blueprint for New Amsterdam at Berbice High School in Region Six, engaging directly with residents, business owners, social activists and other local stakeholders regarding modernisation and infrastructure upgrades. This includes, but is not limited to, a proposal for turning the old New Amsterdam Stelling into a modern boardwalk with restaurants and entertainment to support tourism and the orange economy; a remodelled municipal market, a dedicated vendors’ hub, upgraded internal drainage, new mechanical pumps, and improved road networks; and neighbourhood “health boxes” for basic medical checks linked to local clinics, alongside green spaces, parks, and traffic-relief reserves.
The Mayor and Councillors from the PNC in the Town Council of New Amsterdam were MIA (missing in action). They insisted they were not invited. But a public invitation was published for days. As chief citizens, they had an obligation to be present. Even at this time, I am hopeful that the Mayor and the town council will do the constructive thing of inviting the President or the Minister of Local Government to engage them in the plans for New Amsterdam.
But being constructive and doing what is beneficial to the town’s citizens are not priorities for the Mayor and the PNC-led APNU Councillors. In fact, the Mayor wasted no time in displaying the same obstructionist posture that all PNC-led councils have done in the past – opposing for opposing sake, showing loyalty to the PNC at the expense of the town and the people of New Amsterdam. Last week, the Mayor of New Amsterdam held a media conference in which he, predictably, rejected the central Government’s plan for New Amsterdam. After deeming the plan a “far-fetched” ideology and unachievable, the Mayor declared that New Amsterdam is his town and he rejects the President and the Government encroaching on his territory (my summary of what he stated).
This is Déjà vu. Another Mayor said the same when, about 2002, President Bharrat Jagdeo sent me to Anjoy’s Avenue to help the community with their regularisation, transforming mud dams into asphalt or concrete roads and bringing potable water and electricity to the area. It was a massive undertaking for one of the biggest squatting areas in Latin America and the Caribbean. The PNC was responsible for people in Angoy’s living under substandard conditions in what was part of New Amsterdam, the second main town in Guyana.
After meeting with residents and community activists, many of whom were PNC diehards, we crafted a plan. The then-Mayor’s response was, “Who is Ramsammy to come into my town and talk about development?” He swore that under his leadership he would not permit the then Bharrat Jagdeo-led Government to do anything without his permission in his town. He went as far as to say that Bharrat Jagdeo should “butt out of his town”. The same response is being made 25 years later by another PNC Mayor of this great town.
Almost all streets in the town have been reconstructed and rehabilitated by the PPP Government. Drainage is being improved by the PPP Government. The Esplanade is being transformed. Recreation facilities are being upgraded, among other initiatives over the last several years. The Mayor and Town Council have done nothing. Not only have they done nothing to improve the town, they consistently obstruct the PPP central Government’s efforts to improve the town. Just as they have done for more than six decades, the PNC-led town council always stands between a PPP central Government and the development of the town.
Conversely, they have always stood with a PNC-led central Government in doing nothing for the town. The most recent example of the Mayor and town council standing with a PNC-led central Government in doing nothing was between 2015 and 2020. David Granger once promised New Amsterdam that it would be the focal point for development in Regions Five and Six. But what did they deliver, other than wild promises? In 2018, the PNC-dominated Town Council raised property taxes by 100 per cent, at a time when New Amsterdam saw an almost 50 per cent decrease in business because of the 2016 closure of the Rose Hall Sugar Estate. Not a single street, not one improvement in the five years. Angoy’s was abandoned by both Granger and his PNC-led town council.
The people of New Amsterdam expect that the Mayor and his PNC colleagues collaborate with President Ali and his Government in modernising New Amsterdam. Anything other than cooperation is total betrayal of the citizens of New Amsterdam. Unfortunately, working against the interest of the town and her citizens is predictable for the Mayor.