Rowley: Avoid bobol

The four aldermen are Edwin Gooding, Hayden Alexander, Onika Myers-Haynes and Roodal Lalman. Outgoing chairman, UNC’s Khadijah Ameen was succeeded by new chairman, former Republic Bank Guyana manager the PNM’s Edwin Gooding, while long-serving PNM councillor Esmond Forde was sworn in as vice-chairman. TPRC CEO Beresford Ellies chaired the event.

Rowley endorsed earlier remarks by Ameen that persons in public life often get treated like dirt by members of the public, but public officials themselves must not be tempted to drop to the low level of such critics.

Rowley lamented that grossness, baseness, disrespect, laziness, selfishness and a “gimme, gimme” attitude were now seeping into the body of this society.

“Our children are imbibing it like a sponge. Have you noticed how unmannerly our children are becoming?” He urged such wrongs be righted by young councillors, saying their predecessor councillors are probably beyond recourse.

He promised planning, good governance, integrity and respect for people, plus a genuine use of public consultation rather than what he called, “a bull in a China shop culture”.

Vowing to take the council around to visit different areas under its control, Gooding said there was no reason why a statutory meeting cannot be held in places such as Blanchisseuse and Warrenville.