Dear Editor,
The APNU/AFC Opposition parties and members just do not appreciate the gift that the parliamentary floor is. The opportunity it gives to MPs to express themselves and their policy views is phenomenal.
One reason could be that Opposition leaders do not care about the people of Guyana, and do not therefore have anything substantial to say. However, APNU must be serious about its role.
While there are those sad Opposition specimens who talked nonsense while suffering from knowledge-cum-information deficiency, there are those who talk loosely before the anti-Government media houses, spreading propaganda.
There are those who call on their supporters to do anything possible to interrupt development in Guyana, and not to support the Government’s efforts. As recently as one day ago, threats were made on the capital city by APNU/AFC supporters from New York.
The Opposition APNU/AFC have failed to realise that they are as important as those of the ruling party. The role of the Opposition party is not to oppose every decision of the ruling party. Rather, it is the duty of the Opposition party to support the ruling party for the acts that are in the interest of the nation.
Opposition parties play a very significant role in a democracy, as representatives of the people. The Opposition act as watch dogs of the system, forming a shadow Cabinet to exercise vigil over the performance of the Government. However, we continue to see hard-core evidence of the APNU/AFC Opposition leader calling on their blind supporters to undermine the progress and development of the PPP/C Government.
The question every Guyanese should post to the APNU/AFC is: What is your plan for Guyana? The preamp answer must be a whopping “Nothing”, induced with backwardness and mediocrity.
The APNU/AFC need to reorient their thinking by levelling with their supporters
and Guyanese citizens in general. Up until now, the APNU+AFC have refused, and are refusing, to disclose to the public and to the world their SoPs, which they claim they have won the elections upon; that by itself should put to rest issues regarding the credibility and authenticity of their claims.
APNU/AFC need to stop playing dirty politics and looking for attention. The Opposition need instead to focus and embrace our Government’s economic policies, and help to develop our society so the next generation can have a greater foundation on which to develop their lives to become positive and fruitful members of society.
Deviation from reality check is the ticket the Opposition choose to take since losing the General and Regional Elections. Common sense would lead Guyanese to believe that whatever the Opposition are doing, despite their great failures while in Government, would not work when out of Government. The APNU/AFC Opposition destroyed whatever chances they had of being a trusted Opposition during the March 02,2020 General and Regional Elections.
The truth is APNU/AFC failed their supporters and the people of Guyana, and as Guyanese, we must not trust them again.
Guyanese are becoming tired of the endless claims of racial discrimination being made as a political strategy of the Opposition political leadership, exposing their weaknesses to deal with real issues of national importance that should be carefully monitored, examined, raised by the Opposition, and debated intelligently for our democracy to function optimally.
The APNU/AFC claim of racial discrimination in the human resource management of the Public Service is completely false. However, what is truth is our Government’s development programme is never tailored to any one ethnic group. The fact is that all public servants would be receiving salary increases before the end of 2021, and it would be retroactive.
The PPP/C Government is looking at the mechanism that would allow every public servant to own their own home. They would also benefit from help through the COVID-19 Cash Grant. The Government has empowered public servants so that their children also can benefit from the scholarship programme, many of whom are already benefiting. The public servants themselves are benefiting. In addition to housing and education programmes that are putting money back into the pockets of public servants, the Government has also implemented measures to support citizens during the pandemic. Those measures include the reversal of taxes on a slew of utilities and items, as well as the removal of value-added tax on electricity, water, healthcare, education, and even construction materials. The Government estimates that those tax reversals automatically put billions back into the pockets of Guyanese.
Earlier this year, public servants also received a $25,000 one-off grant. A total of $2 billion was budgeted for this initiative, and it was said to benefit over 60,000 workers. The beneficiaries of this grant include workers within the central Government, statutory bodies, subvention agencies, public corporations, teachers, medical workers, members of the Joint Services, Government pensioners and staff of the University of Guyana, to assist them with the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December 2020, the Government had also distributed a two-week, tax-free bonus to members of the Disciplined Services and frontline workers in the health sector. Further, citizens also benefited from the ongoing $25,000 COVID-19 Relief cash grant. The two-week, tax-free bonus and the COVID-19 cash grant initiatives have already put over $8 billion of disposable income into the hands of Guyanese; $2 billion will take that figure past $10 billion.
And just recently, there was the Flood Relief Grant that was distributed to every Guyanese in every region and community that was affected by the flood.
The people of Guyana must be thoroughly disgusted at the behaviour of APNU/AFC as they continue to mislead the Guyanese public and lie to their supporters.
Sincerely,
David Adams
