GENERAL Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee, this week pointed out that the party is focusing on regaining its majority in parliament and is quite optimistic about doing so. His comments came at the party’s weekly press briefing at Freedom House in Georgetown.
“Our political goal and ambition is to regain our one-seat majority in the parliament. We in the PPP are supreme optimists and we are looking to the future with great optimism with respect to representation in the National Assembly,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, Rohee noted however since the last elections, the political Opposition has “targeted and shut down” every single developmental initiative that was taken by the Government. “Not to mention the sniping that takes place from time to time with respect to issues of corruption, etc.”
President Donald Ramotar a few months back similarly slammed the parliamentary political Opposition, comprising the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), for its “callous and brutal assault” on several crucial national developmental projects in Budget 2014.
“The Opposition has demonstrated by their cuts that they are opposed to development. This is evident by the fact that they are attacking important national infrastructural and developmental projects for narrow and selfish political interests,” Ramotar had told the Chronicle in an invited comment.
The President had said he was “baffled” as to the reason behind the Opposition’s cutting “willynilly” some of the most important projects in the budget.
He also expressed alarm at the Opposition’s obvious “double standards” whereby, on one hand, they are voicing their support for a sector such as Tourism; yet on the other, they have cut funds for the important Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion project, which is crucial to the development of tourism in Guyana.
The APNU and AFC, in their relentless efforts to cut funding for the expansion and modernisation of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, have also cut funding for the upgrading of hinterland and coastal airstrips, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority and the Ogle Aerodrome, among several other key projects.