IT appears as though the opposition is ‘squeezing’ the President, to break the will of the PPP/C. On Labour Day,  rallies flowed from Georgetown to Essequibo.
At the Critchlow Labour College, the Opposition Leader David Granger offered no apologies for the public service workers being laid off as a result of his APNU and the AFC’s cuts to GINA, NCN, CANU, One Laptop per Family, the State Planning Secretariat, and the Ethnic Relations Commission, in the 2012 budget, presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh

Granger told his supporters that he tried to get the President of Guyana to agree to the opposition parties ‘adding their two cents’, in what is government’s business – preparing the national budget, presenting it in Parliament, then the opposition gets the chance to oppose or agree.

Is that not a standard democratic procedure?
Why then does he feel that either of the two opposition parties has the right to do this to a governing body? Not on a cold winter’s night would the PNC, now APNU, tolerate such a suggestion from the PPP/C!

Granger said they, APNU and AFC,  waited and waited throughout the months of December, January, and February to no avail, until March, when this PPP/C government, disrespectfully, decided to present its national budget in Parliament instead.

So the PPP/C, basically ‘dissed’ the ‘Gods of the opposition – APNU/AFC; and must now pay the price, for not doing their bid.

Would they allow the PPP/C to tell them how to prepare a national budget?  Period? Certainly not by a long shot! A budget is a government’s tool for its development.

President Donald Ramotar at the FITUG workers rally staged at the National Park, called on Guyanese not to accept inept leadership from the opposition, and promised to stand by workers, reminding them that it was tragic, what the opposition is doing to the ordinary citizens of this country by the budget cuts.

He expressed total dissatisfaction with the opposition, that they saw it fit to cut the LCDS allocation from the 2012 budget, leaving the Amaila Falls hydro project to fail, and Guyanese to bear the burden of paying higher tariffs for electricity because the opposition also cut the GPL allocations.

I am happy to hear the President say he will not be bullied, or ‘mowed’ by the opposition.

What a waste of good energy, which could have been used wisely, instead.
GAWU’s President Komal Chand, shared the same sentiments as his FITUG colleague and cautioned all workers to be very vigilant.