…Harmon tells House

DESPITE the opposition’s attempt to undervalue the coalition’s accomplishments during Friday’s no-confidence debate, Minister of State Joseph Harmon defended, instead, that the coalition has restored pride to the country.

As many on the outskirts of the Parliament Building watched on intently, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo picked through a list he compiled of the many promises of the government which he stated were unfulfilled. Some of which he listed were the improvement of the health system; benefits for teachers, indigenous peoples and the elderly and special provisions for school children.

Addressing these and others, he said: “What I know is that they took away the $10,000 grant from the school kids…six new regional radio stations established, that’s why we must have confidence in the government? The people who have lost their jobs are going to eat the radio stations that they established there?

However, Harmon enlightened the opposition leader that while he sees the accomplishment as insignificant, it ensures that the thousands of persons who reside in the regions have access to information that has been out of reach for far too long. “Why is it that any leader in this country would want to deny our indigenous people the right to information? Why? Unless your intention is to keep them in bondage so that all they know is the garbage that you actually used to take to them. But the point is now, our indigenous people are more informed, they are more educated and they can challenge the lies that you say to them,” Harmon stated.

Regarding the grant for school children, he reminded the House: “The member again speaks about this 10,000 grant. We have been dealing with this matter at nauseam in the National Assembly and we said it was a one-off arrangement, it was unsustainable and their Cabinet document proved that!” Harmon also noted that while the opposition chooses to propagate that the coalition is “harming democracy” any citizen can see that it is the former administration that halted the Local Government Elections for over two decades.

SYMBOL OF NATIONHOOD
Furthermore, he said that projects like the D’Urban Park project, although receiving much criticism from the opposition over the years, he said that there is no area is the country that has the capacity to hold some 50,000 persons. “The fact that D’Urban Park is built; the fact that we are now able to accommodate at least 50,000 persons in one place, the PPP don’t like that, they want to make sure that we run this thing down,” he began.
“What we are talking about here is the national psyche. What we are talking about is what we are calling symbols of nationhood, where our people can go and assemble and watch their flag flow [unobstructed]. These are the things that we are talking about.”
Coming against the fault-finding of the PPP on the manner in which the Guyana-Venezuela controversy is being dealt with, Harmon challenged: “This same gentle man was prepared to give a corridor of the Atlantic to Venezuela. A corridor of the Atlantic! Let the world know it. We are talking about defending our territorial integrity and you are talking about giving up some of it to the Venezuelans.”

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Meanwhile, on the topic of resource management, Jagdeo argued that the current government is “the most corrupt government in our entire history” spending some $1.3 trillion dollars so far with the budgets combined.

Harmon, in rebuttal, contested that history shows that during the PPP’s reign, Guyana was “deemed and described as the most corrupt in the Caribbean; a narco-state; a failed state that made us a pariah among the world community of nations.”

By the time the opposition leader was into the first 20 minutes of his speech seeking to convince the House of the coalition’s “incompetence”, his voice had begun to take strain. “This is an elitist group, the 33 there and we’re hoping that what I said will touch the conscience of one of these on the other side,” he anticipated.

However, in closing in his response, Harmon stated: “My disappointment Mr. Speaker is that I had so much appreciation for the leader of the opposition but until you spoke here this afternoon I think you’ve gone [downwards]…I support the fact that this motion should be defeated, it is the Grinch that stole Christmas from the Guyanese people. The people are out there trying to enjoy themselves, trying to buy, trying to shop…I cannot support this motion in anyway and I support the people of Guyana enjoying a wonderful Christmas.”