WITH the announcement of the presentation date, this Friday, of the national budget to the nation’s Parliament, it is apt for one to conclude that the nation will be entering into its most testing phase,
since the coming to office of the current administration, in an all together irregular parliamentary landscape.
Just to keep the perspective on the modus operandi of the behaviour of the political opposition thus far – they have displayed a strategy that is akin to one of unprincipled tactics, such as grabbing both the Speakership and its Deputy, in addition to usurping the rightful PPP/C Government majority seat holder on the Selection Committee, in keeping with its being the single party in parliament with the largest bloc of seats – 32.
The latter issue now engages the High Court in a Constitutional case. This does not bode well for both opposition parties working relations with the administration.
In essence, what ought to have been a period of cooperation, despite the expected challenges, between the PPP/C government and the APNU and AFC parties on matters critical to the nation’s wellbeing and onward development, has been held hostage by the latter’s display of power politics, brinkmanship and all the dangerous display of antics that are inimical to this country’s future interests.
They have been like “lil boys” fiddling with a new found gadget of which they have never heard or seen! Power has blinded them to the realities of the importance of their new responsibilities.
For all the assurances by the political opposition of being guided by the important and enlightening rays of consensuality, particularly in the post–election period, an undertaking which President Donald Ramotar from the onset has offered and done his best to implement so as to avoid gridlock, the opposition has been applying the diktat of power politics.
In doing this, they have sown the seeds of suspicion and mistrust, elements totally unnecessary and unwanted in a period where working together should be the signpost for resolving of parliamentary issues. They are therefore missing a golden opportunity to make a most worthy and groundbreaking contribution to this nation’s political, economic and social history, which ironically has been, and will continue to be of great material benefit to even their constituents.
They even tried to bully the Executive about being allowed to be part of the crafting process of the National Budget, only to be reminded in a forthright manner as to whose responsibility the national expenditure is.
For all their public fulminations and lip service about placing country above self, it has been the complete opposite, hence the period of apprehension that will unfold, when the Budget is presented to the nation.
If one is to be guided by media reports, both APNU and the AFC appear, to date, to have not accepted government’s invitation for consultation, due to reasons which only their finance spokesperson, Mr. Carl Greenidge can explain, and which resultant postponement, leader David Granger seems to have been totally unaware.
If the latter of non-consultation is indeed the case with both entities, then they would have failed their membership and the nation in general. They must know also, that they cannot expect to have in the Budget that which they did not discuss with Government.
The opposition parties must be informed in no uncertain manner, that the Budget is about the nation’s financial plan for its annual development, and therefore with the nation now poised for the grand take off and continuation of its transformation programme, gridlock is not an option that is expected, and can be tolerated. In other words, the Budget must not be used as a tool for power play, but only for continued progress, peace and unity of the Guyanese nation and its peoples.