THE CRESCENDO of the voices of the GuySuCo workers superseded the threats and pronouncements of the PNC/APNU/AFC combo, and propelled the joint opposition to reconsider passage of the estimates for the agriculture sector, although Government is still being held to ransom and is being blackmailed into giving in to opposition demands to get vital allocations to several sectors passed.

This happened despite Nagamootoo referring to the protest against cuts to the proposed $6B subsidy to the sugar industry as paid ethnic mobilization.

It is hardly likely that Moses Nagamootoo could ever again return to campaign in the sugar-producing communities; not after betraying them worse than Judas in tricking them to give their votes to the PNC, to destroy the party of their idol, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

Nagamootoo used his history of affiliation with the PPP and the Jagans to fool PPP/C supporters in the sugar belt that he would look after their interests. He did this to win their votes away from the PPP/C in the 2011 elections, only to take the seats garnered through PPP supporter votes and hand them over to the PNC. This was amply demonstrated to Nagamootoo and the world when sugar workers stopped just short of beating him outside of Parliament, when they turned out in their numbers to demonstrate their anger at the AFC/PNC/APNU strategies and pronouncements in trying to force a closure of the sugar sector, and to protest the imminent threat of the opposition to cut the Government’s allocation of $6 billion to the sector that directly and indirectly provides sustenance to tens of thousands of Guyanese from all walks of life.

Although Moses Nagamootoo claimed the workers were paid, and he referred to their peaceful protest as ‘ethnic mobilisation’, the voices of the workers prevailed, and the GuySuCo employees returned triumphant to their respective sugar-producing communities.

Government is still being held hostage to PNC/APNU/AFC bullyism, but the opposition bullyism and malice continue unabated in the hallowed halls of that august House called Parliament, as vital aspects of national development in key sectors were remorselessly butchered by a ruthless joint opposition.

Most poignant of all were the cuts to the health sector and the hinterland developmental funding, done for various petty reasons.

These continued displays of trading on their combined 6-vote, one-seat majority is an indication of their commitment, or lack thereof, to the welfare of the Guyanese people, including their own constituents; and a combined leadership that only fosters its own self-interest at the expense of the people’s good.

Granger’s weak excuse for cutting hinterland developmental funding, among others, is that arms are coming through Brazil. He should know, given that it is generally his supporters who have a track record of committing crimes of a violent nature in the land; but this is a mere ploy.

He is trying to pull the proverbial wool over the Guyanese people’s eyes, because, from the PNC’s track record; from the infamous X-13 Plan; the slo’ fiah, mo’ fiah and Buxton resistance strategies of creating mayhem in the country for political expediency; this is a unique leadership technique peculiar only to the PNC, of which the mini and inconsequential parties in the APNU coalition — including the AFC — are mere adjuncts, existing only to lend credence to the name APNU; and in the case of the AFC, to empower with their additional parliamentary seats.

Cutting the health sector budgetary allocation was a sop to the Bharrat Jagdeo/Bobby Ramroop haters, as well as to one of the mini parties’ financial backers in the drug trade. The New GPC supplying drugs to the health sector is the real contention. The fact that the New GPC’s operations provide jobs to Guyanese, produce local drugs, and earn foreign exchange for the country, as opposed to the mini-party’s funder, who imports drugs and expends foreign currency, had no relevance to their considerations.

Cutting funding for the Specialty Hospital was also another act that kowtowed to a profit-motivated party leader in the malicious coalition, whose client wants the contract and who is using his power in Parliament to attempt to force the Government to concede to the terms dictated by his client.

Another mini party MP – a PPP/C defector – extracted millions from a Chinese contractor slated to work on the CJIA expansion project, and is probably hoping for several more millions in the continued subtle blackmail of both Government and investors hoping to do business in Guyana.

What is apparent is that these opposition parties are scratching each other’s backs in their various anti-developmental, self-gratification agendas, like the WPA subsuming justice for Walter Rodney for a parliamentary seat and a promise of a share in government should the coalition ever win an election in Guyana.

There are sinister implications to the smooth passage of the Home Affairs Ministry’s budget, and PPP/C supporters are concerned that the budget was passed without any question put to Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee – a minister the opposition parties love to hate.

PPP/C supporters quite correctly perceive sinister implications in the smooth passage of the Home Affairs Ministry’s budget, given Granger’s meeting and affiliation with GDF heads and ranks, Felix’s track record, and the PNC’s constant calls for ‘kith and kin’ support from the security sector.

The concern is also justified when consideration is given to the history of joint services’ support of PNC’s various pogroms against PPP/C supporters.

The intentions of the joint opposition were apparent from commencement of the Tenth Parliament; they wanted total control of Government, and not be mere adjuncts to the administration. This was apparent since 2012, with its almost virtual boycott of the several committees and sub-committees established by the President to address issues of governance in efforts to break the impasse and enable the country to move forward. Converse to the composition of the parliamentary committees, each party had equal representation, yet there was precious little, if any, cooperation by the opposition with those initiatives.

On the eve of debating the 2012 Estimates, AFC MP Ramjattan and APNU MP Carl Greenidge brought motions, on the night of April 17th, to cut the budget sub-heads for the employment of contracted workers in the Office of the President; the ministries of Education; Housing and Water; Health; Labour, and Human Services and Social Security. Alerted by the media following a hastily-called press conference by the Government, 500 public servants, including staff from the Parliament Office – most of them opposition supporters — held peaceful pickets in front of the Parliament Building against the proposed cuts by the opposition on the following day, April 18, forcing a withdrawal of those motions by the joint opposition at the April 18th sitting.

A request by APNU for a meeting to discuss the 2012 Budget was assented to by Government, with the proviso that the Opposition makes available in writing the list of issues it wished to discuss. The delegation of the Government of Guyana (GoG), headed by the President, and the delegation of APNU, headed by the Leader of the Opposition, David Granger, held meetings from April 18 to 24, 2012, to try to reach agreement on the 11 issues raised by the APNU in order to reach agreement on the 2012 Budget. AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan initially refused to participate in the talks, but eventually joined the meetings on April 23, 2012.

At the first meeting, convened on April 18, 2012, the Government agreed to the APNU proposal for an increase of the monthly rates of the non-contributory Old Age Pension. The Government’s caveat to the agreement was that it would expect APNU to support the additional charge of over Gy$1 Billion on the Budget. On that same day, the Minister of Finance announced the increase at the sitting of the National Assembly.

Additionally, agreement was reached, on April 19, 2012, between the GoG and the APNU on a staggered reduction in the subsidy for electricity supplied to Administrative Region 10, and specifically to the township of Linden. At the all-day April 22, 2012 meeting between the two sides, progress appeared to have been made, and a draft press release was prepared to that effect. Hon. Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, with the full concurrence of Leader of the Opposition David Granger and Rupert Roopnaraine of the APNU, (who were shown a copy of the statement before it was read to the National Assembly), announced the agreement at the sitting of the House on April 19, 2012.

On the following day, April 20, 2012, leaders of the AFC travelled to Linden and, with APNU leaders from the Region, including PNC MP Vanessa Kissoon, opposed any reduction in the subsidy for electricity. The Leader of the Opposition also travelled to Linden, and at a meeting there, reneged on the agreement reached on April 19, 2012 with the Government.

Subsequent actions by the AFC and PNC/APNU precipitated a literal and figurative inferno at Linden, and later, Agricola, which left several persons dead, many private and public properties destroyed, and many ordinary citizens – including children – traumatized for life because of assaults on their persons.

On the following day, April 23, 2012, APNU and AFC MPs tabled motions to cut the Budget by over Gy$20 billion. The draft press release was not agreed to by the two opposition parties and was never released. Talks between the two sides on the nights of April 23 and 24, 2012 failed to reach agreement, and in fact reversed what progress was made with the entrance of the AFC delegation.

The Opposition motions to reduce the 2012 Budget were tabled and voted on by majority at the April 25 and 26, 2012 sittings of the National Assembly.

The Appropriations Bill for Budget 2012 was passed as amended, with a massive cut of Gy$20.9 billion on April 26th 2012. Most telling were those Government agencies which were reduced: the Office of the President; the Guyana Elections Commission; the Guyana Power and Light; the Ministry of Finance’s Low Carbon Development Strategy programme; the State Planning Secretariat; the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU); and the Ethnic Relations Commission, one of four constitutional rights commissions.
Government resorted to the judiciary, and the High Court ruled in the Government’s favour, stating that the Opposition-controlled National Assembly acted outside its constitutional remit in imposing the cuts to the 2012 Budget.

In keeping with the court ruling on the budget cuts, the Minister of Finance, on August 9th, returned to the House, requesting approval for expenditures under supplementary provisions, in keeping with the court order. This attempt was partially successful, but this time, funding of the original heads which were reduced on April 25, 2012 for the Office of the President, were reduced to 0 immediately prior to the commencement of the recess of the first session of the 10th Parliament.

Although the Acting Chief Justice upheld the preliminary determination on the budget cuts in a ruling handed down in the High Court on January 29 of this year, the joint opposition — with the sanction of the Speaker, who has, to date, exhibited blatant partiality to his opposition colleagues in the House — are intent on flouting the law under the assumption that the Standing Orders of the National Assembly are paramount to the nation’s Constitution.

And the farce being enacted in Guyana’s National Assembly continues, with the only solution perceived by Guyanese citizens being general elections, which would hopefully restore the majority in the House to Government.