PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar has said that the Alliance For Change (AFC) and the political coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) have no ground calling for the jailing of Government Ministers. Nevertheless, the ministers are ready at any time to face the consequences of improving the lives of the citizenry and country as a whole.
At the recent commissioning of the Vreed-en-Hoop Power Station, the President told the gathering, which included residents, that there are many who do nothing but criticise.
He reminded that it was under the People’s National Congress (PNC) Government that it became a criminal act to be in possession of a loaf of bread. The PNC, which has since changed its name to the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), is now the de facto controller of the APNU coalition.
The penalty of having the ancient means of survival back in the ‘dark days’ of the PNC, the President said, was “jail”.
Some concerns were recently raised over Government’s spending under a prorogued Parliament, but those were answered with an emphatic one-line defence by Public Works Minister Robeson Benn.
Addressing the fifth annual Engineering Conference held recently, Benn, under whose purview investments into several major infrastructural undertakings were made, said: “I am prepared to go to jail for any reason related to Guyana’s proper development; for any reason.” He declared emphatically that he stands with his colleague, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.
“I stand in support of Minister Ashni Singh, who has found the way to allow the expenditure to be made, so that our country’s development does not falter, and so that our economy does not go into recession,” Benn had said.
The Public Works Minister reasoned that Government spending constitutes the largest sum of expenditure into the national economy.
“The payment of wages and salaries, the purchase of fuel and other things in relation to our development efforts has a lot to do with the work of the Government,” he said.
Government has since disclosed that it will be dissolving Parliament within the three-month constitutional timeframe before the holding of Regional and General Elections on May 11.
President Ramotar, taking a jab at the Opposition, said: “There are some who do nothing but criticize. There is a lot of criticism about jailing Ministers. Minister Benn has responded to them… These were the same people (PNCR, now APNU) who were criminalising our whole country, when you could have gone to jail for having a loaf of bread in your possession.”
He added: “So if they want to criminalise us for generating power for our people, we are ready to face that as well. We will continue to work in the interest of the people.”
