As Guyanese at home, through the medium of television, and in the Diaspora through NCN’s live streaming witness the farcical comedy of errors being enacted in the National Assembly during debate (?) of the 2014 Budget, everyone is assailed by a feeling of déjà vue, because this immensely important feature in any nation for all the multiplicity of reasons too numerous to mention herein has seemingly been reduced to a seasonal theatrical production; or a soap opera so beloved of housewives (and secretively by their husbands) for the titillation of the Opposition and their supporters.The serious business of the nation is now entertainment factor for the masses, with all waiting with bated breaths for the next episode as the Opposition drama unfolds. The tenth Parliament is drama no playwright or movie producer could dream of; and the mind-boggling scenes are putting ‘The Young and the Restless’ and ‘Pavishta Rishta’ to shame, because the daily performances are unscripted and highly original entertainment: non-stop laughs.
And some of the major actors in the AFC were once very high-ranking members of the PPP, at decision-making levels. Their somersault is therefore astounding, bearing in mind that the PPP/C Government’s development programme has been a consistent work in progress, based on PPP/C manifestos, the policies of which they championed at national and international fora for years. The annual budgetary allocations are merely to facilitate the implementation of developmental programmes of which they had been fully supportive; but which, conversely, they have joined with their new PNC allies to denounce and derail. Hindering national development under a PPP/C Government has now become a primary focus for former PPP members – all bitter and vengeful because they were denied something that they wanted, with no consideration that they are taking Guyana down a retrograde path.
Minister Irfaan Ali, in his Budget presentation, said, inter alia: “…PPP/C administration has sought over the years to restore the dignity of Guyanese; dignity which was lost during the period of PNC/APNU leadership, a period when our economy and the spirit of our people was broken.” The PNC/APNU combo is the new political ally of disgruntled former PPP/C presidential wannabes.
Minister Ali stated for their edification: “The 2014 budget represents another prudent fiscal presentation aimed at sustaining and expanding the economic opportunities of our people. The 2014 budget represents another effort by the PPPC administration to improve the social performance of our society, to continue the process of building a productive and prosperous nation for all Guyanese.
“The 2014 budget is fiscal plan with measures catering to all Guyanese, measures to restore our dream that Guyana can and will be a place of prosperity and success….it is the hope of the PPP/C that our colleagues will see the rationale, purpose and objective of Budget 2014 and lend their support. Our purpose is the purpose of all, to improve our nation’s wellbeing and restore prosperity to Guyana.”
Minister Ali has made erroneous suppositions and conclusions in his presentation – that the Opposition is willing to work and/or cooperate with Government to “…restore the dignity of Guyanese”; to sustain and expand the economic opportunities of the people; to improve the social performance of our society, to continue the process of building a productive and prosperous nation for all Guyanese.
The Opposition combo recognises that the 2014 Budget is a “…fiscal plan with measures catering to all Guyanese”; but Minister Ali is erroneous in assuming that they are interested in “…measures to restore our dream that Guyana can and will be a place of prosperity and success.”
And they will never support the 2014 Budget, or any PPP/C Budget, primarily because they know that it is the hope of the PPP/C that they will see the “rationale, purpose and objective of Budget 2014” (and 2012 and 2013); and that is why they will never lend their support.
His conclusion, that “Our purpose is the purpose of all, to improve our nation’s wellbeing and restore prosperity to Guyana” is again an erroneous assumption, because the Government’s purpose is not the purpose of all – because Government’s purpose is to build, while it is the seeming purpose of the joint Opposition to destroy all the synergies that would make Guyana a country where peace, progress and prosperity prevails.