AFC/APNU plans to immobilise government
– and shut down the country
ONE could hope; but in actuality the leopard never changes its spots, and it was only a matter of time before the joint opposition exposed their feral fangs.
But this dangerous game of Russian roulette that the joint opposition is playing has only one target – the Guyanese nation.
Governments not only comprise a President and ministers of the Cabinet; but integral to the processes of governance in every ministry governing the various sectors are the heads of departments and the core workers.
This was amply demonstrated when, during the consideration of the estimates, ministers were accompanied by their aides and heads of departments in conciliatory efforts to compromise with the opposition and simultaneously demonstrate to the nation that the breakdown in the budget would indicate that all the transactions projected for implementation are above-board and can be explained in open and explicable ways.

With full media coverage, everyone was privileged to get a glimpse of the major players that support each minister, all of whom play a major part and are integral to the processes of governance in real ways, because they ensure the daily functionality of the ministries in which they work: and it was apparent to even those who are myopically prejudiced that those key figures that each minister depended on to provide answers to questions posed by the opposition are primarily opposition supporters, who are merely executing their professional duties as employees of the state; and each of them performed superlatively well in providing the relevant information to the satisfaction of even the most jaundiced and jaded members of the House.
Yet these are the very persons, among thousands more, that the joint opposition proposes to deprive of their jobs by making them redundant due to price cuts with which they are blackmailing the government in moves to impress their supporters.
And it is to their credit that government, rather than take the easy route of calling snap elections, is prepared to compromise, majorly, to placate the egos of the opposition collective; because it is a fact that only this government has stabilised the country’s economy, and has the expertise to juggle figures to come up with workable solutions in sync with the opposition’s demands, as in the pension scheme.  It is easy to make demands: Children do that with their parents every day, but it is not easy for parents to stretch the budget of the home with a salary that has no elasticity.
The hearts of Guyanese that had been buoyed with the hope of ameliorative measures to bring peace and stability; as well as a sense of security to a community and a private sector that lives in abject fear of opposition “slo’ fiah, mo’ fiah” strategies were once more plunged into gloom when opposition leader David Granger retracted his word that he had given to a government delegation headed by President Donald Ramotar.
Through brilliant and astute stewardship of the nation’s economy by the PPP/C government, especially under the leadership of former president, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who has been dubbed the architect of modern Guyana, Guyana’s macro-economic fundamentals have been stabilised enough for this country to achieve real growth in successive years, even while the economies of even the developed world have been crumbling; and especially the USA has been said to be experiencing recession equal to that of the great depression once experienced by that country.
With the Donald Ramotar presidency promising continuity of the projects and programmes crafted and created by his predecessor, and financial whiz kid, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, and his dedicated team piloting Guyana’s fiscal dynamics, Guyana is on the cusp of finally achieving its optimum potential of development.
But the ragtag rabble in the opposition, along with the professional protestors, who make their living and get their fun from creating trouble for peaceful citizens, whose own children admit to being ashamed of their antics, are all set to destabilise this country once more and send it right back to the dark days of dysfunctionality and destruction once more.
The motley crew calling themselves leaders, who are intent of milking this opportunity to get their moment of fame – more like infamy, all have past records that cannot stand up to public scrutiny, yet they sanctimoniously pontificate on the budget that was crafted with the input of all the major stakeholders in the land, including the private sector, which needs stability and continuity in the political and social landscape of this nation because of the latent threat to their investments.
In actuality, their success and continued prosperity is linked to that of the nation; and anything that threatens the economic dynamics in the land is a direct threat to all those who have placed their faith in the governance of the PPP/C.  The massive investments in Guyana within the recent past is a great leap of faith in the prudent management of the nation’s affairs by successive PPP/C governments; and the relative peace in the country over the past decade or so has seen unprecedented acceleration of entrepreneurial initiatives in this country.
Apart from jobs, impediment of government’s developmental programmes, and immense social dislocation, the private sector also faces an uncertain and fearful future; especially if the joint opposition has their way in destabilizing the country through their idiotic and muscle-flexing grandstanding and illogical antics.
The sheer spite and vindictiveness, especially by PPP defectors, and the absolute illogic of their demands, which have no merit and no credible grounds, except to show, as Nagamootoo put it, that they are part of government.  He once was, but not anymore.
What he is today is a blot on the memory of the two great people who nurtured his personal, professional and political growth.
The venomous malice behind his calls for cuts to the state media is unparalleled, bearing in mind that state media once came under his purview, and his was the mandate to identify budgetary needs of these entities.
All the while that he held that portfolio, as he did that of other sectors, he had always vehemently defended the allocations budgeted to his administrative control.  It is a pity that he did not recognise how wrong that was then; and now he is in the right company, suitable to the person that he has proven to be – a genuine wolf, who once wore sheep’s clothing to fool the masses that he was a patriot with principles.
His claim to being close to the Jagans was not false; and it is because of that close association that spanned decades that they were able to recognise the fangs behind the smile and choose Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar as their successors.
Never again could David Granger be trusted to keep his word, although the government would continue to engage his party, and the AFC, in efforts to avoid the destruction of all they have achieved for this nation; but hope for  maturity in the opposition benches has been dissipated.
Granger’s perfidious and duplicitous nature was exposed when Ramjattan revealed that he had agreed with the AFC to support the motion for the budgetary cuts for the ministries of Housing and Water; Tourism; and Youth, Sports and Culture; only to back-pedal when he saw the response from APNU’s supporters in the Public Service; and again when he had agreed with the government that the electricity subsidy to Lindeners need to be phased out, again retracting his word.  Who needs a leader, never mind an aspiring president, who vacillates in his decisions as Granger does?
And the fork-tongued leaders of the AFC: They don’t support subsidies to the sugar sector, even though they are aware that it was the $16 million levy that the PNC government had imposed on this sector to fund, among others, free electricity to Linden, other state initiatives, GNS, along with the crippling EU price cuts that had driven that sector to its knees, with the government valiantly trying to sustain it and save the jobs of almost 100,000  persons depending –either directly or indirectly–on this sector for their livelihoods.
The budget was well-crafted to catapult this nation on a trajectory pointing skyward, but the visionless and opportunistic opposition collective mean to extract every chance to play to the gallery, with their supporters as spectators, never mind that they cannot achieve, nor plan a budget, in the comprehensive and brilliant manner that an Ashni Singh has.
Who among them can, especially when aspiring president Moses Nagamootoo cannot compute simple calculations, and financial whiz kid Ashni Singh had to assist him in his arithmetical calculations – Carl Greenidge? Sasenarine Singh? Tarron Khemraj? Christopher Ram? Glenn Lall? CN Sharma? That is the joke of the century.  Sadly, the more sober and responsible citizens of the country are not laughing.