The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has lashed out at the combined opposition, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) for cutting more than Gy$ 20 billion off the 2012 budget.
At a press conference held at Freedom House, Georgetown, executive members and government ministers Clement Rohee, Irfaan Ali and Pauline Sukhai chided the opposition and accused it of deliberately attempting to stymie the country’s economic and social development.
Rohee, the home affairs minister, said it is clear the opposition went to the Committee of Supply to utilise the “tyrannical scissors”. According to him, things were not as devastating in the first instance as “positive signs” were seen at the beginning, but talks progressed “we saw bad faith”.
“Whose side is the opposition on?” he asked rhetorically, stating that the particular cut made by the opposition sends a “clear signal” to those who engage in trafficking narcotics.
Minister Clement Rohee
“It is sending a signal to the people who are trafficking in narcotics; it is not only sending a signal to the international community… look don’t worry you are not under pressure, we took away Gy$ 20 million from CANU to disable CANU from effectively executing its functions’. I think a stronger signal would have been sent to persons involved in narco trafficking if you had given the money to CANU to execute its functions.
By sending such a signal, you are sending a signal internationally and to drug pushers in this country that you are not prepared to give the government Gy$ 20 million to effectively fight drugs.”
Similarly, Housing and Water Minister Ali said the opposition’s move to cut such huge sums from this year’s budget will have far reaching implications not only locally but regionally and internationally.
“These funds would be testing Guyana’s credibility in relation to international commitments and that is what is at stake here, also, our credibility as a nation or trustworthiness as a nation.”
He added that the country’s stability would be tested in the international community, because Guyana made several agreements internationally that would be affected.
Ali challenged the APNU and the AFC to outline to the nation the rationale behind the cuts, “what guided the decision”.
Minister Pauline Sukhai
“I challenge the opposition to outline to us the basis on which this decision was made and what were the guiding principles utilised in making this decision to cut and the areas they cut… the opposition cut were carefully calculated in a way to destroy future economy, to destroy the expansion of the services economy and to destroy the linkage of the development infrastructure to economic growth and expansion in the future. And that is all aimed at creating a failed state.”
“Wasteful
adventurism”
According to him, the opposition’s vendetta is based on “wasteful adventurism”. Minister Ali stated that “in the long term, they (the opposition) are looking at a failed state; they want to ensure that whatever they do in the short run is enough to ensure the failure of government so if a snap election is called, they believe that this action of theirs would be enough to ensure that the government fails”.
Addressing comments made by the opposition that the budget cuts could be reversed, Ali said that does not make much sense as the impact the cuts have on the economic lives of several affected could not be compensated by a future adjustment.
“They are looking at this thing very fictionally, when the cut ensures that 38 persons from GINA go home, how can you reverse the impact on the life of those 38 persons? How can you reverse the economic and social implications on the lives of those persons, is that reversible?”
He stressed that reversing the budget cuts has “Severe implications” that the combined opposition are not taking into consideration.
Meanwhile, Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai also weighed in on the effect the cuts would have on the Amerindian communities across the country. She said that some 70,000 Amerindians will be affected.
Sukhai told the media that the “opposition is reneging on its promise to give young people jobs”, noting that it would also “affect the furtherance of Amerindian development projects”.
She said too that the cuts have left those very projects “languishing in the pipelines”. The Amerindian Affairs minister stated that it was “a sad day after all for all Guyana, it’s a loss for our people, for the Amerindians”.
The minister said she is disappointed with the move made by the opposition, noting that not only Amerindians will suffer but all Guyanese. “How can the opposition be so irresponsible?” she asked, stating in the same breath the “cuts were reckless”.
She accused the opposition of bullying the government by its one seat majority. The ministers noted that the cuts do not only affect the identified items that have been cut but all current projects and programmes would be affected, as they are interconnected as ICT, the OLPF, fibre optic cables and hydro power.
That aside, the ministers said that government has tried on several occasions through dialogue with the combined opposition to address some of the issues they raised, but the opposition did not give government a chance to effectively address those issues.
The opposition on that note was accused of being inconsistent with its public statements.
“Why would they want to mess around with people’s economic and social wellbeing?” one minister asked.
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