Dear Editor,
The circus surrounding the just concluded Budget debates provide another proof of the utter disdain and callous contempt the two major parties have for the people of this country. Both the PNC/Coalition and PPP/C know fully well that no matter their audacity, they will be supported by their pledged followers. Rationality, commonsense, fair play or objectivity does not matter. The politicians know that they just have to throw out red-meat or put up their smoke screens and whatsoever they do and say will find support among the divided and confused masses.
The Guyanese public has long been relegated to the status of political guinea pigs. Both the PPP and the PNC take us for granted. Imagine that for some 50 years, every budget that is proposed has always engendered the ire of the opposition. Every budget is picked apart and reconstituted by the opposing party, in a one-ups-man attempt to suggest to their party supporters that they really care about the damage and hardships the ensuing budget will cause.
But if that is really the case – if the opposition really thinks that the Government of the day is brutish and uncaring – how is it that no opposition has ever accepted the offer to sit in a pre-budget consultation? How is it that neither the PNC nor the PPP has ever accepted the overture to sit down with the opposing team and craft a budget in the national interest of the Guyanese people? The answer is clear. It is called positioning.
So what we have is 50 years of budgets that are crafted with the sole desires of the ruling governments, where the only beneficiaries are the families, cronies, and friends of the Government.
Does any Guyanese think that our stagnated growth and developmental retardation is accidental? Do you really believe that we Guyanese are the dumbest, laziest and most uneducated in the region? The answers to both of those questions are “NO!”
So why then are we the furthest behind in the region? The debate around the latest budget is a prime example of an answer to that question. For 50 years our politicians have done wrong by us. They have acted and continue to act, with purely selfish motives. They continue to sell out the country to a select few, while the masses are left with virtually nothing to show for the sale.
It is with these realities in mind that the URP is suggesting that there needs to be a counter balance of power in the Parliament. Whenever these two parties are given full reign, they take advantage. Guyanese will have to support another, independent, party to sit in Parliament who will mitigate on behalf of those who are always left with the dirty end of the stick.
If we do what we have done over the last 50 years, we will get what we have gotten over the last 50 years. It is inevitable that we shift away from party voting and vote with the interest of Guyana at heart. It might be an experiment in the unknown but the Guyanese populace has no other option than to divide their votes in order to stem the tide of these runaway governments.
Our children and grandchildren will thank us for putting country first.
Yours truly,
Dr Vishnu Bandhu
Leader, URP
