THE lack of respect for the Constitution, coupled with mismanagement, dishonesty and intolerance for democracy, are some of the reasons the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition will be a weak opposition.
This is according to Attorney-General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, during a recent interview on State-owned National Communications Network (NCN) TV.

“We welcome robust scrutiny, we welcome a formidable challenge, we welcome a competent Opposition; that is not present in this bunch,” Nandlall said.
The attorney-general noted that, in government, the APNU+AFC failed to deliver campaign promises and failed ordinary Guyanese, including their own supporters.

“The ordinary grassroots Guyanese saw how the chosen few at the top were given the contracts and enjoyed the gravy train and during their five years they waged war against the Constitution of the country, against the judicial system; they lost a no-confidence motion and remained in office illegally,” Attorney-General Nandlall stated.

He continued: “After that kind of performance in government, the people voted them out and the sensible few that supported them, after the elections, would have also distanced themselves from them, because of what they did and how they embarrassed themselves, on a universal and global platform, as they attempted to thwart the will of the people.”

The legal affairs minister said the APNU+AFC cannot now mobilise support on performance, delivery of promises, democracy and constitutional good governance because of an abysmal failure, the only card left to play in the pack is that of ethnicity.
He said racial arguments have never won and will not win.

Adding that the now Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon, was the most powerful man in the APNU+AFC government, the attorney-general said, and pointed out that the party keeps preaching on the number of Afro-Guyanese who were allegedly killed, but never thought it serious enough to hold a commission of inquiry.
“But when you were in government what did you do about it, now you are on the opposition you gone with the propaganda again, who is going to believe that,” Nandlall questioned.

He also said the current state of affairs in relation to the National Treasury and governmental institutions was dire.
“As soon as we got into the government… we began to work, we discovered very quickly that the treasury was empty, that the productive sectors were dormant, that business and commerce were at their all-time low and that the morale of the people was beaten and broken.”
According to Nandlall, in almost every area of governance, there is evidence of neglect and mismanagement.

“So, in every ministry you found rot… basically nothing happened in five years. We knew from the Opposition, we were seeing this from the outside, we were hearing about it, but when we entered into the government itself and we were able to examine the structures and the apparatus within the government, then we were able to realise and ascertain the level of destruction which had taken place,” he asserted.

Nandlall further pointed out that the extra-budgetary funds left by the then PPP/C Government, which amounted to “billions of dollars”, had vanished.
He explained that it was necessary for the government to move quickly into activating the constitutional processes by bringing the Parliament into motion so as to kick-start government after a five-month protracted delay.

The first sitting of the 12th Parliament, at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Tuesday, saw the approval of a total of $11.2 billion for 16 constitutional agencies for the remainder of the 2020 fiscal year.

A complete national ‘emergency’ budget will be presented in the National Assembly on Wednesday.