…PM, Trotman assail Jagdeo during debate 

OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo was on Thursday night described as “the doctor of doom” and a failure during the debate on the Petroleum Commission of Guyana Bill 2017, in the National Assembly.

Trotman was at the time rebutting statements made by Jagdeo, a former President, which alleged that attempts are being made by the government to misuse revenues to be garnered from oil production here. Jagdeo in his address called for the government to enact legislation that would establish the Sovereign Wealth Fund. He said it would be best for Guyana to apply the Norwegian approach to save its oil revenue. “That’s why a Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Norwegian type model, not a Trinidad and Tobago model, should be established and brought to this House urgently to ensure that we can manage those resources well,” he said.
Jagdeo noted that the approach by the two-year-old coalition government spelled trouble and even stated that the APNU+AFC government will not win a second term in office. However, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, in a scorching rebuttal said Jagdeo needs to accept that he is no longer President of Guyana. “Mr, Speaker, the opposition leader has to remember he is in the opposition, and he has to remain in the opposition. We will not be lectured by the Leader of the Opposition about good governance, I’ll take a lecture from Ms Teixeira, from Mr Odinga Lumumba, but I will not take a lecture from you. Not you! Never! Never!” declared a fiery Trotman who received overwhelming support from his colleagues.
Trotman made it clear that Jagdeo’s assertion about the Norwegian model is old-fashioned and noted that, that model cannot apply to developing countries such as Guyana. “Do some new reading. You are in the past. You are in the past, You are a relic. You are a relic. Your time has passed, you are irrelevant and your time is up,” said Trotman.
Meanwhile, Jagdeo told the House that Guyana is now benefitting from his administration’s hard work, noting that the government has only “temporary stewardship” over the industry. However, Trotman told Jagdeo he has nothing to be proud of as he has failed in every sector while serving as president.
“How could you Mr Speaker, come here and try to lecture us after you have left that behemoth that has failed at Skeldon, you have the temerity to turn up here and lecture us…$200M and can’t produce one kilowatt of power, and you want to come here and lecture us as if you are the world’s greatest economist. How dare you!”
Trotman added: “Mr Speaker…if the people of Guyana were to hear him they would know he has nothing good to offer, Skeldon is down because of him, the Berbice River Bridge, we are barely holding it up because of him, every sector that he touched is down…the NIS, Marriott Hotel… You could say whatever, you are a failure. You are a failure. That is why you are sitting there because you failed, that is why you sitting over there. You failed.” The Natural Resources Minister said that seven years ago Guyana had become a pariah state, “washed with drugs money and corruption, there are people in this House who couldn’t travel abroad and Mr Speaker now we are being told and lectured to…,” he remarked.

Jealousy
Similarly, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo made it clear that it is the PPP’s intention to mislead citizens, distort and truncate the legislation he deemed as honourable. “They are misleading the people and nation that this government has created an institution that has

arrogated and appropriated the powers of the state of the people, when in fact we are trying to dilute, widen the authority given to the minister and ensure there is a commission that will share the authority by the minister and recommend to him how the oil and gas sector should be administered.”
The prime minister, who is also the leader of the government’s side of the House, accused the PPP of being jealous, noting that the party which has been in power since 1992 before losing the May 2015 General Elections are salivating over the prospect of oil revenue. “There is a lot of jealousy and envy you see permeating in the discourse. That the minister has too much powers and when he tries to share the powers, that he is not serious or have an intention to actually do that. We know Sir that this gloom and doom is coming at a time when the opposition wants to wage total war against everything, even things that are considered to be good and worthy,” said Nagamootoo.