As Budget Day looms nearer, with great expectation from the Guyanese people, utterances from the opposition continue to cast a dark shadow over the nation as they continue to threaten to cut the budget, despite the court ruling that determined that this does not lie within their mandate.

However, their stated intent to disregard the dictates of the law and parliamentary diktat is casting a pall of gloom because of the fear – especially in hinterland communities that once again the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) will be targeted, as it was last year, for no other reason than the LCDS was the brainchild of Former President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, with whom leading members of the opposition seem to have a queen obsession – queer being the operative word, with pun intended.
Yet the hope that the collective opposition will allow their good sense and any iota of patriotism they may have remaining to prevail over partisan, vindictive and opportunistic politics so that the business of the country can move on smoothly; as this country is still reeling from the aftermath of opposition grandstanding and politicking post Budget Day that left this country with mammoth loss of personal and state property, great suffering and trauma in hinterland communities and sections of the sector, also in members of the public not inclined to violence who were caught up in the ensuing storm; and, worse of all, tragic loss of lives.
President Donald Ramotar has cautioned the opposition against LCDS budget cuts, stating that he is hopeful patriotism will triumph over partisanship. The President said: ““THE Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) exists on a foundation built by the people of Guyana, but this foundation can be damaged or destroyed…we all have a responsibility to make sure this does not happen,”
The hinterland communities of mainly indigenous peoples of Guyana have preserved Guyana’s rainforests; hence Guyana can today bargain on the international market, as structured in the LCDS, for funds that will help in adaptation and mitigation efforts in Guyana’s struggles to prevail against climate change.  However, the opposition has fought against the LCDS and has even managed to delay the release of the Norway funds to Guyana.
Their budget cuts last year, especially of the entire LCDS allocation, shocked even hard-core journalists and detrimentally affected a wide swath of national developmental programmes, especially in the hinterland.
The president says that as long as there is a reasonable attitude on the part of the Guyanese leadership, particularly on the political front, despite the threats being uttered, “…then we can deliver on the ambitions of the LCDS in the years ahead.”
The LCDS has earned for Guyana just over US$115M from its pact with Norway four years since its launch under the hand of former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
According to the Head-of-State, in 2009, under the guise of the LCDS, Guyana’s vision was to ensure that the standing forests remained of far more value than dead forests.
He related that more than 11,000 indigenous families now have electricity for the first time from clean and renewable sources and that very soon the solar panel project will also reach the riverine communities.
Norway pays for climate services, said President Ramotar, but added the “vision of LCDS goes much further.
“Thousands of young Guyanese are experiencing the early stages of our new low carbon economy in a very real way,” said Ramotar, in reference to the booming call centre industry locally, which he says aptly demonstrates that Guyanese can compete with any of the other countries in the world
“This year, we will see the big transformative investments of LCDS starting to bear fruit.”      
According to the president, upon completion of the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric project, coupled with the upgraded distribution network, there will be a steady source of clean renewable energy.
The hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on importing fossil fuel, particularly for the generation of electricity, can be invested elsewhere for the social well-being of Guyanese.
The Amaila Falls project will see Guyana propelled to the status of being the top user of clean energy, while eliminating 92 per cent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
However, all these projects can be derailed if the opposition’s anti-developmental strategies hold sway.  One can only hope that the threats already uttered will prove to be empty for the sake of this nation, for which the erstwhile Members of Parliament have been elected to make determinations toward the general good of the larger society, and not to pursue their personal agendas.