– says GHRA should avoid acting as an apologist for the opposition
THE Office of the President (OP) has flayed the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) for statements made regarding the recent budget cuts by the parliamentary Opposition parties, and has said that the “GHRA should avoid acting as an apologist for the opposition”.
In a statement, OP said, “It is inconceivable that Guyanese would believe, as the GHRA would want us to, that the recent budget cuts by the parliamentary opposition parties, APNU and AFC are cosmetic and intended to have no effect.
“The Office of the President has noted GHRA’s contention that the design of the opposition was to approve cuts in the budget that were cosmetic and without the intended effect to put workers out of their jobs and disrupt the developmental programmes of the PPP/C Government, and flies in the face of the defense of the cuts put forward publicly by the opposition political parties,” it stated.
“It is based on the cuts and the defense of the cuts by the opposition that the PPP/C Administration has taken the case to Guyanese, to stakeholders, and particularly to the affected Amerindian communities. Faced with the obvious, the PPP/C Administration could not have come to any other conclusion.
“It is the Office of the President position that in the absence of a categorical statement by the opposition parliamentary alliance, APNU and AFC, that their cuts were cosmetic and intended to be without any effect, the contention of the GHRA must be rejected,” OP stated.
OP said it is the parliamentary opposition parties that should make this disclosure and the GHRA should avoid acting as an apologist for the opposition and undertaking an excuse for the unexplained and indefensible.
Meanwhile, the ruling PPP/C over this weekend, has said it is appalled by the GHRA statement in relation to the public anger and outcry at the APNU/AFC budget cuts, of more than 18 billion dollars.
“Rather than empathising with the Guyanese public’s anger at the cuts, the GHRA in a major cover up on behalf of APNU/AFC has sought to justify such actions and have attacked those who have highlighted and commented on these most draconian actions of the opposition,” the party said.
“One would expect that the human rights organisation of any country or an organisation that has a human rights orientation, would adopt a position publicly and privately that ensures that it canvasses for positions that are supportive for human rights and the welfare of people,” the PPP/C posited.