AT the close of the last budget debate the Presidential Adviser issued a warning to the opposition that they have made a huge mistake which would come back to haunt them. Her colleagues on the other side jokingly brushed aside her comment as another one of those idle threats that would amount to nothing. These sentiments were later reiterated in Granger’s comments on television when he said “the cuts they imposed on the government clearly shows who is the boss, or who is in charge.”
Well, if I were in Granger’s place I would not be so quick to make that boss talk because making fun of the people’s bread and butter issues is not funny at all. You are talking about deep financial cuts to the spending of the government which in actuality will hurt the poor man in the street and you are there creating a mouthful of nonsense about who is the boss, I ask the boss for what? This is preposterous!
A closer look at the budget cuts and the world, yes the world that is looking on sees the blinding fury of an opposition who is out of control. Their vengeful disregard for the government has driven them to the point where they have hacked away into all the major allocations of government.
Major departments such as the Customs and Anti Narcotics Unit CANU bore the brunt of the attack. This is a unit of the government that deals with the fight against drugs which incidentally, the opposition for years has accused the government of neglect. They have erroneously accused the government of not doing enough to curtail the drugs trade, now this. Making major cuts in an area that government is clearly making headway vividly exposes the opposition’s nefarious agenda in not being honest and forthcoming in the drugs fight, hypocrites of the worst kind if you please. They have forgotten the numerous articles in which they constantly rehash the Roger Khan issue and now when it is time to man up to the responsibility of reining in drug dealers they are back-pedalling, choosing to opt out of the fight. In a related issue, I was shocked into reality at the enormity of the drugs trade and the large sums of money governments have to spend to keep it in check
I was watching the American drugs programme recently and got the shocking truth of how much it takes to maintain one of the dogs in the never-ending drug war. It takes $50,000 US annually to maintain a canine in top shape-that is its food, training and health supplies. What a budgetary allocation for a lone dog! If one should turn the searchlight into the Guyanese situation using Guyanese dollars you may well get the picture as to our drugs plight and the cuts made to an already paltry sum allocated to this cause, this is what the opposition has done to the Guyanese society. To top it off the cynical remarks made by some in the print and electronic media that the government should suck it up, its no big deal, what’s the big fuss among other silly comments is plain callous, insensitive and downright spiteful. Other key areas that came under the opposition’s butcher knife were the LCDS, NCN, GINA, GECOM and most significantly the ERC; in this case everything was taken away leaving them with nothing.
The cuts made by APNU and its surrogate AFC to the 2012 – 2013 budget were  deliberate and well thought out carefully executed plan to cripple the government of Guyana.
Huge inroads made into government’s spending with the express purpose that not much, if any, can effectively be done in this country. This ultimately will hurt the people of Guyana whom the opposition forces believe will turn on the government; after all its they, meaning the government, who have brought this misery on us. However,this is not the case because the people have angrily reacted to the opposition’s politcal monkey business and a people who are hurt I dare say will show their displeasure when the right time approaches.
You know, the Guyanese proverb is a very good way to end our discourse today. The old proverb says a smart fly gets locked up in the cow’s-you know where? That’s exactly what is going to happen to the opposition smart Alexes. I rest my case.