On Monday May 8, 2017, the A Partnership for national
Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) fully exposed their predatory behaviour against their own citizens. Many of these citizens even voted for the APNU/AFC, thinking they were voting for the “good life”. APNU/AFC thought they used their one-seat advantage in Parliament; a one seat earned by leftover votes, to defeat various motions presented by the PPP on Monday night. But really they lost the hearts and minds of the vast majority of the Guyanese people. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) knew that APNU/AFC would use its one-seat advantage to defeat the motions, but it was important to further expose APNU/AFC’s predatory behaviour so that it becomes crystal clear.
On May 8, the arrogance and insensitivity of APNU/AFC was on full display, their disdain for the people at full throttle. It was not just in Parliament, but the APNU/AFC machinery was on a full-out, stinking display of authoritarianism. While they celebrated on Monday night at the various watering holes, using taxpayers money, other parts of the APNU/AFC machinery were nauseating people with ludicrous, odious pronouncements. I am not going to comment here on the sad explanation provided on Monday for the no-tendered, no-advertised, single-sourced GPHC $606 million emergency medicine contract. I will also not comment at this time on the recues of Justice Holder who clearly buckled under pressure from the Attorney General and the Prime Minister. Surely, these examples provide an eerie feeling of what dictatorship feels like.
Authoritarianism was front and centre in Parliament on Monday, May 8. The Speaker was the hatchet man, torpedoing the PPP motion to rescind Value Added Tax (VAT) on education. The AFC’s belated public statement that will ask for a review of VAT on education was merely political prop for their rapidly evaporating support base. They voted for VAT on education at Cabinet and in Parliament. But in the face of diminishing political support, they thought they would fool people. The debate in Parliament would have exposed them again. The Speaker stepped in to avoid a devilish situation for both APNU and AFC.
On Monday in Parliament, the Agriculture Minister was at his feckless-best, deeming sugar insignificant to the Gross Domestic Product of Guyana and confirming what the President, the Prime Minister, Ramjattan, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and others have been denying – estates are being closed, sugar is being downsized and there is no commitment to ensure sugar remains a major industry in Guyana. He posited that GuySuCo ‘s high wage bill is unsustainable and is partly why sugar is being downsized, clearly casting blame on sugar workers. The “White Paper” was used to send a message to the protesting sugar workers who were in front of Parliament not to expect a wage increase for 2017, making it the third successive year of no wage increase and not to hold their breath for severance. As clueless Holder spoke in the role of the messenger of doom, Nagamootoo, Ramjattan and Charandass who all promised during the election campaign that no sugar estate would be closed, sat silent, shameless.
As if “dissing” sugar was not enough, Holder dismissed the more than 600 per cent increases in drainage and irrigation, lease and rental fees for farmers as affordable. Clearly, Holder has no clue as to the hardships being faced by the farmers, the people who toil to feed and keep Guyana as one of the few food-secured developing countries in the world. His colleague, the AG literally deemed farmers as scoundrels, beggars and thieves. The Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, lied that rice farmers never had the markets they now have. They argued that the increased charges were legal and that the hardships of the farmers are not important as they voted against the motion to rescind the increased fees. Only in dictatorships could such utter arrogance and dishonesty be possible.
In the meanwhile, they truncated the debate on the Land Commission that the Amerindians have opposed. In allowing only two speakers before they adjourned the Parliament, the Minister responsible for the welfare of Amerindians stood as a puppet insulting his sisters and brothers for going on a “frolic of their own” in expressing their fears that their legal land titling will be restricted by APNU/AFC. Essentially, the Amerindian people are being told to be silent and one of their own is APNU/AFC’s messenger of wrath.
To top it off, this Monday, the Finance Minister boosted that he collected $20.5 billion in January and February 2017, almost 25 per cent more than January and February 2016. This is no big achievement, not something to boast about when you increase taxes on everything, including water, electricity, health and education. Taxation to fund spending is a backward, regressive policy. Government is supposed to make people’s lives easier and better, not weigh them down with regressive, burdensome taxes, not to be predatory on citizens. Boasting about it is the distinction of dictators.
