History seems to be repeating itself. After the many public calls for the Opposition to have an input in the 2013 Budget, shadow Finance Minister and Opposition representative at budget deliberations, former Minister of Finance in the PNC administration, Carl Greenidge absconded from the budget talks. 

His abscondment at the time caused one to wonder whether the threat of the ‘scissors’ and the ‘axe’, even before the presentation of the Budget, were not part of a plan to precipitate just such an eventuality that subsequently occurred during the farcical Budget 2013 debates and deliberations.
Now, once again, the same scenario is being played out; but Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh is making it pellucid, that if the Opposition does not engage in budget talks within the stipulated time before Budget presentation, then their actions anent the threatening ‘scissors’ and ‘axes’ would be a clear indication of their intent (of which many people are convinced) to strangle Guyana’s economy and stymie the developmental paradigm as crafted by the PPP/C Government.
Mr. Granger has said publicly that he has authorised his Shadow Ministers to engage in consultations and discussions with their ministerial counterparts, therefore, it is incumbent that the Opposition representative to the budget talks avail himself of the opportunity the joint Opposition has been clamouring for – to have an input in the national budget.
But Opposition leader David Granger has been less than factual when he criticised the Government for not engaging their party in consultations on the budget.
Dr. Ashni Singh is calling on Granger to assert his authority and have his finance spokesperson, Carl Greenidge, respond to the invitation by the minister to meet for discussions on the 2014 Budget.
This call by the minister is being made at a time when Kaieteur News reported that government has not consulted with the Opposition in preparation of the 2014 budget.
“This is a repeat of history that occurred just a year ago,” said the Finance Minister.
During budget preparations for 2013, Mr. Greenidge was invited to attend the meetings in the capacity of Shadow Finance Minister. Instead of attending the meetings he disappeared overseas for an extended period and made himself unavailable for consultations.
“What was worse last year,” says Singh, “is that no one in the Opposition appeared able to shed light on Mr. Greenidge’s whereabouts.”
Mr. Granger is claiming that government has not consulted with the Opposition with regard to Budget 2014, two months before it is expected to be presented to Parliament. However Dr Singh, in a press release issued last weekend, called out the Opposition for making a false accusation. The Finance Minister noted that as recent as January 13, 2014 an email was sent, addressed to Mr. Greenidge, asking for him to suggest a date and time for the Government and Opposition teams to meet.
The email was also copied to David Granger, Lance Carberry, Khemraj Ramjattan, Dr. Roger Luncheon and Ms. Gail Teixeira.
The statement also noted that the email to Greenidge also contained copies of documents to be discussed. “To date my invitation has been met with stony silence by Granger and Greenidge,” noted the minister’s statement.
Singh is now calling on the Opposition Leader to assert his authority and instruct Mr. Greenidge to respond to the invitation for budget consultations.
“If Mr. Greenidge is unavailable to participate in budget talks this year, as he was last year, he should do the decent thing and let the Leader of the Opposition appoint someone else to lead the Opposition team to the Budget talks 2014,” the Finance Minister asserts.
The statement issued on Saturday also noted that the invitation issued a week ago, was not the first of its kind issued to the Opposition to discuss the 2014 Budget. According to the Ministry of Finance, a Government team has already initiated discussions with the Opposition in the latter part of 2013 and is looking forward to continued cooperation on the issue as preparations windup for the March 2014 budget deadline.
But in Guyana we have political leaders and aspiring leaders, and their acolytes and satellites, who use every opportunity to denigrate and derail the developmental processes of this nation, merely to advance their own selfish causes and agendas.
We are a developing country – emerging from a history of a plethora of destructive elemental forces that devastated our nation, even to the point where even the more optimistic thought that we would never emerge from the quagmire in which we had been immersed for decades – to the point where even the more altruistic funding agencies had practically written us off as almost beyond redemption.
Until former U.S. President Jimmy Carter decided, in the interest of justice, and in light of the contention of Guyana’s supreme leader, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, that the PPP had been “cheated, not defeated” for decades during general elections in Guyana – a contention that was proven as fact by U.S. State files, that the Carter Centre should use its phenomenal power to force the Desmond Hoyte administration, which is recorded to have been responsible for the worst election rigging in the history of Guyana during general elections of 1985, as well as the Draconian Economic Recovery Programme (ERP – empty rice pot) that he had imposed on the Guyanese people, to concede to having relatively “free and fair” general elections in our country after decades of PNC rule. Dr. Jagan was vindicated and the reconfigured PPP, with its civic component, undertook the gargantuan task of trying to restore some order out of the critical and chaotic national landscape then prevailing – in every area.
But we are indeed living in some interesting times; and the eerie re-enactment of posturing by public figures with responsibility to Guyana’s electorate to deliver quality representation that are meaningful and progressive in scope and content, for which they are amply rewarded with taxpayer’s dollars, but which they abandon for agendas inimical to the welfare of the very people they claim to care about, is a sad reflection of our recurring history.
The scenario of an absconding shadow finance minister and the blackmailing political leader has been re-enacted, time and again, in various guises and in different plays throughout the course of Guyana’s history, with dire consequences to this nation and the Guyanese people.
One wonders if yet again the calls to put the nation first will once again be ignored.