You must be kidding!
THE PPP/C remains undiminished in its commitment to the social and economic development of Guyana and of all our communities and our people. We are not intimidated by threats from Mr. David Granger and APNU, and from Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and the AFC. But we are appalled by their threats that we give them what they want or else. APNU and the AFC want to get even with the PPP/C and they want to teach the PPP/C a lesson. We are appalled that Mr. Granger and APNU see the $21B cuts in the National Budget as elimination of waste and that the Guyanese people would benefit from these cuts. We are appalled that Mr. Ramjattan and the AFC sees it as collateral damage and we are appalled that these parties and their political surrogates, like Adam Harris in the Kaieteur News and Christopher Ram, see no impact from these cuts.
Make no mistake; the true motivation for these cuts is to stall development and to make Guyana ungovernable. While they walk together and prance around with demonical scissors, ugly threats and promoting disharmony, the PPP/C walks with the people and we are determined to sustain the development thrust and make better lives for our citizens everywhere.

The AFC and APNU described the present configuration of our Parliament as a new dispensation. I agree, but I thought it’s a new era of dialogue, politicians working together to improve the lives of the Guyanese people and taking our country to a higher place. Yet the new dispensation is seen as an opportunity to take revenge, to be spiteful, to be in charge at all cost. The new dispensation for APNU and the AFC is to stall development. They see the new dispensation as an opportunity to cut useful and beneficial programmes and consider their thrashing as collateral damage and elimination of waste.
I am convinced and I know that many who voted for the AFC never intended for them to join with APNU to stall development. Instead, the AFC joined with APNU in an effort to force the PPP/C to give in to the demands of APNU, and to demonstrate who the boss is. The AFC calls it collateral damage. APNU calls it elimination of waste, and to the benefit of the Guyanese people. Their surrogates say there will be no impact of the $21B cuts.

Many who voted for the AFC in Region 6 and 5 want to know why the AFC did not ask about a single street in these regions during the budget consideration. No MP from the AFC asked about any street in Whim or Black Bush Polder or Canje. But the AFC was vociferous in demanding that the subsidy for electricity in Linden be preserved, while voting to prevent a subsidy for electricity for all citizens across Guyana. No one from the AFC or APNU supported the many streets, like those at #65 and #68 Villages and in Black Bush Polder that the budget catered for. But APNU only was interested in certain villages in Region 4. The PPP/C is the only political party that stood and talked about development everywhere, in every village, for all of our citizens.
First APNU and AFC came with scissors brandishing, with a scrooge-like scream, saying they will eliminate the “fat cats”.  They wielded their scissors – and there were victims. But after days of questioning in Parliament, finding out who worked where and what were their salaries were, the AFC and APNU MPs merely targeted ordinary workers, young Guyanese, drivers and cleaners, reporters, economists, persons earning $50,000 to $200,000 per month. Ordinary workers became the pawns in the perverted need of the AFC and APNU just to demonstrate who was in the driver’s seat, just to demonstrate the wrath of their vengeance and spitefulness.
Hundreds of people have had their jobs and thousands have their livelihoods threatened by the $21B cuts. Those persons who work at the State Planning, at OP, GINA, NCN, with private contractors in projects that were cut are wondering if they have employment in 2012. They are wondering how they will pay their bills and what the future looks like for them. Yet for Khemraj Ramjattan and the AFC, this is merely collateral damage. How callous and uncaring! For APNU, this is elimination of waste. How does this benefit the Guyanese population? How can anyone say there will be no impact of the $21B cuts when people are losing their jobs?
APNU says it was motivated by the desire to eliminate waste from the budget. So they enthusiastically brandished their demonic scissors. They say that the country would benefit from the $21B cuts. The AFC dutifully acquiesced. So what wastes were eliminated? And how would the Guyanese population benefit from the cuts?
•  I was appalled that anyone could think that the jobs which are threatened represent waste. Who wants to face the young people and professionals whose jobs were mercilessly cut and tell them their jobs were lost because they were wasteful? Who wants to face these workers and tell them they represent collateral damage and who wants to face the workers and tell them loss of their jobs is without impact?
•  It was, indeed, a revelation to know that APNU and AFC thought the Amerindian land demarcation and land titling represented a waste needed to be eliminated. I cannot fathom how eliminating this important exercise in guaranteeing fundamental rights of our Amerindian brothers and sisters will benefit the Guyanese population. Can someone tell me how this would have no impact on the Amerindian people and Guyana’s development? Can Granger and Ramjattan tell the Amerindian people why land demarcation and land titling are wasteful activities and how this collateral damage will have no impact on their communities and their lives? Better yet, can the AFC MPs, Garrido-Lowe and June Ullah Marcello and APNU MPs, Sydney Alicock, George Norten and Dawn Hastings go tell the Amerindian people they voted to stop land demarcation and titling?
•  How can these MPs and their colleagues in APNU and AFC face the Amerindian people when they voted against a programme that seeks to provide solar panels for all Amerindian households? Is this collateral damage? Is this a waste to eliminate? How could anyone think this cut will have no impact on people’s lives?
•  I was truly stunned that APNU and AFC voted to cut funding for the Amerindian Development Fund. I had not heard before anyone saying this was a wasteful project. I am, therefore, shocked this was one way that APNU and the AFC thought they could eliminate waste. How eliminating this development fund would benefit Guyanese? And, really, how could Adam Harris, Freddie Kissoon, Christopher Ram and others claim there would be no impact of the $21B cuts?
•  It must be shocking for ordinary Guyanese to find out that APNU and the AFC thought that they are eliminating government waste by cutting funding for the micro-and small enterprise development fund for building alternative livelihoods for vulnerable groups. These are the same persons who want the government to increase funding for micro-enterprise for vulnerable groups in Linden, but vote to cut such funding for vulnerable people across Guyana. This is sheer hypocrisy. It’s an example how limitless their desire for vengeance and spitefulness is.
•  I am left disappointed with the Opposition’s cut for funding for the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project. This is a project that is intended to reduce electricity charges and to provide more reliable supply of electricity for Guyanese. Through this project, we can save more than US$3.5B (or more than G$700B) in the next 20 years and we can reduce energy-related greenhouse gases by almost 92%, adding to a marketable carbon-rich asset. Surely, no one in his or her right mind could see this as a waste to be eliminated! How eliminating this project will benefit Guyanese? And how dishonest could people be when they claim there is no impact of these cuts.
•  It was unbelievable to hear that blocking funding for the reconstruction of the Cunha Canal project is considered by the AFC as simply collateral damage, by APNU as a benefit for the Guyanese people because it is a waste to be eliminated, and by certain critics as an action that will have no impact on people. The Cunha Canal was one of five discharge sites for the East Demerara Water Conservancy. In 1990, the then PNC Government first re-aligned the flow of the canal into the Demerara River and then abandoned it in order to accommodate Barama. Essentially, this act of utter stupidity increased the risk of flooding in the Mahaica, Mahaicony and Abary areas, because it left the East Demerara Water Conservancy too dependent on the Maduni and Lama sluices. In addition, the abandonment of the Cunha Canal left the rich agricultural areas like Badrima and Laluni and other communities along the Linden Highway which depend on surface water flow into the Cunha Canal, without drainage. In 2005, the PPP/C restored Cunha Canal, but with only 40% of its original flow. The reconstruction and re-alignment of the Cunha Canal has been recommended by every study done on climate change mitigation and was accepted by the GRIFF committee for funding through the LCDS. The AFC demonstrated how little they care about people by dismissing the cut for this project as collateral damage. APNU cannot be serious that this is a waste that must be eliminated and the critics who argue that these cuts will have no impact must clearly be out of their minds.
• How could anyone seriously think that cutting funds for the fight against cocaine and drugs dealers, by cutting funds for CANU, is eliminating waste? I really must confess I did not know that APNU and the AFC thought that fighting against drug dealers was a waste we must eliminate. Can anyone tell me how the Guyanese population would benefit by limiting the fight against drugs? How can we justify this as merely collateral damage, as the AFC did? This must be the height of irresponsibility.
• I am totally frustrated by the cut that would limit the ONE LAPTOP PER FAMILY programme. How could distribution of 90,000 laptops to poor Guyanese families be seen as collateral damage, without any impact? I really did not think by any stretch of the imagination that this programme is a waste we must eliminate. I can’t see how limiting this programme can benefit the Guyanese population.
The people of Guyana are not stupid. The $21B cuts in the National Budget were meant to hurt the government, but in the end ordinary Guyanese are being punished because APNU and the AFC wanted to teach the PPP/C a lesson. The PPP/C will work to continue dialogue with everyone, because we want to make sure that Guyana and the Guyanese people are better today than yesterday, and that they will be even better tomorrow. We will not stop and we will continue the Guyanese story of development for everyone.
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy
Minister of Agriculture