THE 2014 National Estimates of Expenditure was the first Budget delivered after the final ruling of the Chief Justice that was rendered on January 29, 2014, where the Chief Justice confirmed his earlier edict that the Opposition has no power in law, or under the Constitution to cut the National Estimates presented by the Minister of Finance. 

However, breaching the Constitution, in direct contravention of the Chief Justice’s ruling, the joint Opposition spitefully, maliciously, without care for the many lives and living of Guyanese citizens – many of them their own supporters, that would have been negatively affected, wielded a murderous axe that simultaneously truncated the Budget and the living and transformational developmental projects in one blow.
The Government, with the mandate to govern the country and look after the welfare of all its citizens, heeded the ruling of the Chief Justice and gave the Finance Minister sanction to do his job and take care of the nation’s business so that the lives of the ordinary citizens would no longer be dislocated as a result of the intransigence of the joint Opposition.
For this the joint Opposition’s vociferous denunciation and attempts to sanction the Finance Minister, using various ploys, denotes the normal recklessness and lack of respect for the Laws of this land: But the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, in his 2014 Budget Speech, obviated the legitimacy of any sanction against the Finance Minister for heeding the Chief Justice’s ruling and exercising his mandate, as empowered by the Constitution.
The AG, in his 2014 Budget speech, said: “Recall, the Opposition had cut the 2013 Budget although the Chief Justice had rendered a preliminary ruling that they had no power to do so and, accordingly, the budget cuts were, in effect, declared to be unconstitutional. The reason advanced by the Opposition, then, was that they are not bound by the Ruling since it was preliminary.”
The AG continued: “When the final ruling came, however, both Opposition parties signalled, publicly, their intentions to cut the Budget, clearly disregarding the ruling of the Court. Right here in this House, repeated references have been made of an intention to cut the budget with an axe, with a scissors and with a hatchet in clear disregard of the Chief Justice’s order and in violation of the Ruling. Therefore, the majority of the members of the National Assembly are essentially, by their words and their conduct, declaring a clear and unequivocal intention to disobey, ignore and defy rulings emanating from the Judiciary.
“As Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, I say that this is legally and constitutionally reprehensible. It is a most calculated and callous abrogation of the Rule of Law and an assault on our constitutional democracy.
“I am aware that an appeal has been filed. However, it is the common law of this land that, until and unless an Order of a Court is set aside or overruled by a Court of competent jurisdiction, that Order must be obeyed, irrespective of how wrong we may feel it is.”
And then the Honourable AG addressed the crux of the matter: “We expect the ordinary man to obey the laws of the land. We expect the ordinary man to obey the Orders of Court. As leaders and lawmakers in this House, we are held by an even greater and higher standard. I dare say that one day we will regret our conduct in this House of trampling upon the Rule of Law and the Constitution of this land, which we swore an allegiance to uphold in this House. The Rule of Law is that fulcrum that maintains that pivotal balance between civility and anarchy in any society. When we flout the Rule of Law, we are undermining the integrity of that crucial equilibrium and can cause this society to slip into that abyss of lawlessness where the laws of the jungle shall prevail.
“The Opposition parties, therefore, have lost the moral authority to challenge any executive actions in this House, on the basis that it is unlawful or unconstitutional.”
But how does the Attorney General, or the nation for that matter, expect adherence to the laws of the land by ostensible political leaders, who are supposed to be framers of the National Constitution, when they cannot respect their own internal party constitutions, as is demonstrated at their every successive congress?
Whatever the reconstruction of the names of their parties, their conduct is expressive of their nature individually and collectively; and the nation can only hope that the Government continues on the pathway of progress, notwithstanding the actions of the joint Opposition that seems intent on taking the country on a retrograde pathway.