AMONG several recommendations made by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament (MP), Deborah Backer, during her contribution to the 2013 budget debates in the National Assembly yesterday, was that government ministers should submit themselves to polygraph tests.

She stated that officers of the Custom Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) are often subjected to polygraph tests, and stressed that the APNU is now recommending the same for government ministers.
However, in her response, Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett urged the opposition to come join the government for this exercise, saying: “On this side of the House we are ready for the polygraph testing, just come with us.
Backer also recommended enhanced foreign language capacity of the staff of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, adding that it is her personal belief that Guyana should be moving towards making Spanish its official second language.
The Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs requested that the Foreign Affairs Minister lay in the National Assembly a five year strategic plan for the ministry, and also recommended that moves be made to initiate and quicken negotiations with relevant countries in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on the possibility of sharing overseas missions in terms of expenses.
In addition, she urged the government to seek to conclude arrangements with Suriname to bring an end to illegal crossing between the countries.
Backer stressed that APNU’s position on Guyana’s sovereignty remains constant and that the party continues to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the government, the Alliance For Change (AFC), civil society and all Guyanese in defense of all 83,000 square miles of the country.
She noted that the recently deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was very instrumental in keeping the Guyana/Venezuela border issue on the back burner, but pointed out that with the upcoming elections in Venezuela on April 14 and the possibility of the opposition party taking office, it is important that the government continue to ensure that CARICOM countries are fully mobilized and stand behind Guyana.
In addition, she highlighted that should the opposition be victorious at the polls, the PetroCaribe agreement, under which Guyana receives approximately 50 percent of its oil and pays partly with rice and paddy, may possibly be revalued. She further added that Venezuela is now Guyana’s biggest creditor.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker stressed that the survival and reengineering of CARICOM remains an absolute prerequisite and that the development of foreign policy coordination.
“APNU is in no way seeking to either dictate or interfere with the sovereignty of our sister CARICOM states…CARICOM would be more effective on the world stage of foreign diplomacy as a single block,” she explained.
Backer also accused the government of misusing international organisations for “their own narrow political gains.”
In this regard, she alluded to what she called “the photocopy scam” when the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Education, invited firms to bid and supply pirated text books.
Additionally, she pointed to the United Nations Rights of the Child Committee in January which was represented by Presidential Advisor, Gail Teixeira and Minister of Human Services, Jennifer Webster.
She quoted a Kaieteur News article, which stated that some 3000 girls leave school because of pregnancy and that Teixeira stated that “the greatest threat to protection and promotion of children rights and equal access to service is emerging from the threat of the parliamentary democracy posed by the opposition dictatorship of one.”
However, Teixeira rebutted by explaining that Backer was not just quoting from the newspaper, but was making a deduction.
“The issue is that the link between teenage pregnancy and the quote on democracy in the document are about 50 pages apart…in the official document, the reference on teenage pregnancy is 50 pages away from the final paragraph where that part was spoken,” she asserted.
In addition, Backer related that while continuing to seek trade and investment opportunities with traditional partners, Guyana has, quite correctly, continued to look both south and east for new trading partners.
She stated that the country is quite fortunate for the support it has received from China, adding that “APNU has no quarrel with that, and indeed we welcome Chinese investors to our shores and have done so since the PNC  government in 1972 established diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China.”