–accuses him of suffering from myopia

A PARTNERSHIP for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament, Jermaine Figueira did not back down on Tuesday when Opposition Member Komal Chand sought to discredit the 2018 National Budget.

As the debates continued on Day Two, Figueira told the National Assembly that it is the Opposition Members of Parliament’s “clouded vision” that is preventing them from thinking rationally; that only an irrational person would deny that the $267.1B Budget is a visionary financial document that contains policies that will positively affect the nation way beyond 2020.

Figueira’s onslaught was triggered by assertions made by Chand, who spoke ahead of him during the debates on Tuesday; assertions to the effect that the 2018 Budget is fraught with anti-people policies.
Chand, a back bencher, told the House that the 2018 Budget is a repeat of the year before’s and lacks vision. According to him, the budget largely comes across as a “cut-and-paste document; un-original and un-convincing”.

Said he: “It seems, too, that the government, through the Budget, has gone to great lengths to obscure our harsh realities from the Guyanese people. “Fanciful, eloquent language has been employed, and lofty declarations have been made, but as the last 30 months have shown there is every likelihood that many of the measures may hardly be translated into any concrete and definitive actions at the end of it all.”

One of his contentions is that little or no emphasis has been placed on raising the standard of living for the poor and working class.

‘WOEFULLY’ DISAPPOINTED
“Today, as the workers look hopefully to the government, they are woefully let down. For the people, there is little inspiration that can be drawn from the budget,” he said.
He said, too, that while the government boasts about the removal of the Value Added Tax (VAT) from Education, it must be recalled that it was this same administration that made the imposition, and that it was the determined actions of the people that led to its removal.
“Also, we should not forget that VAT is still charged on electricity, water, private medical care, medication, school supplies and many essential and critical items,” Chand said, adding:

“While many of the massive increases in the cost of government services remain in place, clearly the pressures borne by our ordinary working people are continuing.”
Chand, a veteran trade unionist and President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), brought up the spectre of sugar workers being faced with the sad reality that their pay rates have remained unchanged since 2014, while that of the public servant has been increased by 50 per cent since 2015.

And the reason they’re being treated so shabbily; left out in the cold, he said, is because the Sugar Industry lacks leadership.
With reference to the government’s decision to scale down the operations of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) due to the poor state of the industry, Chand said he is convinced that something can be done to save the industry, and safeguard the thousands of jobs it has helped create.

“As we get ready to celebrate, in a few days from now, Christmas, thousands of sugar workers are being made redundant and must face a dismal future,” he said, voice redolent with despair.
“It is depressing to imagine the situation in the sugar belt at this time; this is a heart-rending situation and will surely be assessed as a defining feature of this dispensation,” he added.

UNWAVERING SUPPORT
Taking to the floor, Figueira, who by then had had enough of Chand’s fearmongering, declared his unwavering support for the 2018 National Budget.
In rebutting the claims put forward by Chand, he told the House that the government has long demonstrated its commitment to GuySuCo.

“Mr. Speaker, no man in a rational state of being will deny that this government has not demonstrated its commitment to GuySuCo and its workers, with its continued provision of billions in subsidies each year since it took office,” Figueira said.
“The question one should ask, Your Honour, is: ‘When should this end?’ since these demands keep getting greater and greater.”
Speaking from the government side of the House, the Linden-bred MP said it must be recalled that the Sugar Industry’s present conundrum blossomed under the PPP, a fact that the GAWU is fully aware of.

“Honourable Member Chand was always on the PPP’s side; even as GuySuCo fell to pieces. Hence, he is guilty by association for the present state of GuySuCo’s dilemma. And one only has to look at the cost of work stoppages, he presided over during the last 40 years,” Figueira contended, voice dripping sarcasm.
He, however, hastened to assure the House that it’s not that he’s not mindful of the plight now faced by sugar workers.

“Mr. Speaker, I am from a place that lived unemployment under the PPP administration, and thus I am qualified to empathise on issues of job displacement,” he said, adding:
“My Region, Mr. Speaker, lost hundreds of jobs in bauxite and gold during the PPP reign; and things were never the same since, but we had to move on.
“The people of Region Ten, despite being beaten to the ground, like the bauxite dust, we still rise without the many options our brothers and sisters of GuySuCo are being offered by this caring government to start anew.”