— Minister Sukhai urges opposition colleagues

TWO women, experts on the issues that challenge the Indigenous Peoples of Guyana, clashed in the National Assembly on Wednesday as they expressed their thoughts on budget 2020 in the ongoing debates.

Making presentations one after the other was Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Campbell-Sukhai and Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Dawn Hastings-Williams.

Digging into the budget 2020, the Opposition MP questioned the government on how pensioners in Guyana’s remote regions where there is no access to the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) or the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) will benefit from the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) from water and electricity.

“I am speaking about pensioners in Chinoweng, Mr. Speaker; pensioners in Kaikan, pensioners in Phillipi, in Kanashen, in Itabak, Kurukubaru, just to name a few of our Indigenous communities. How exactly will they benefit from this reversal of VAT?” she questioned. She suggested that they be given an allowance to their pension to cater for their exclusion. She also recommended that alternative measures be established for Indigenous Peoples of low-income to access loans.

In her presentation, Hastings-Williams criticised the management of the spread of COVID-19 at border regions, telling the House that Budget 2020 does not cater enough to the protection of those who live there.

She compared the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPP/Cs) budget to that of the David Granger-led Administration’s ‘Decade of Development’. She said that she is pleased that several projects were initiated by the APNU+AFC.

One of the projects she highlighted, was the Regional Disaster Risk Management Centre in Lethem, which she said is 95 per cent completed.

“We have improved the capacity of our people at the community and regional level so that they can better deal with whatever disaster comes in their community,” said the MP.

Added to this, she pointed to over 170 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) hubs which have helped to connect schools and break down the barriers to equal access to education.

“I’m asking the government to be an inclusive government for the people of Guyana. Serve the people in humility, serve the people with love and serve your country, our beautiful country Guyana, with dignity and integrity,” urged Hastings-Williams.

NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, speaking after Hastings-Williams, said her opposition colleagues have nothing to worry about as PPP/C Government is committed to ensuring that Guyana returns to its prosperous state, beginning with the 2020 Budget.

She said the PPP/C’s track record shows that it is capable of doing this and of correcting the “disastrous” five years of the APNU+AFC.

Responding to the Opposition MP, she said: “I want to assure the honourable member that the PPP/Civic Government is the one that have built social cohesion in this country. It is the People’s Progressive Party Civic that has ensured that harmony lasted for a while until the APNU took over in 2015. Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the honourable member that it was in 2018 that the entire country began to slide because they showed their true colours after the no-confidence motion was passed and they were expected, as a responsible government… to have done the right thing.”

Campbell-Sukhai layered the opposition with criticisms for disregarding the rule of law in Guyana following the December 21, 2018 no-confidence motion, which she said is responsible for the slide in Guyana’s democracy and economy.

Though Hastings-Williams criticised the PPP/C’s COVID-19 management in the hinterland, the minister said that it was the APNU+AFC, from March to August 2020 that failed to effectively contain the virus. She said that the former government took a perennial time to solicit just US$5 million from the World Bank even as the former minister of health “held testing kits in her personal space.”

In a short period, Minister Campbell-Sukhai said the PPP/C was able to attain donations, testing kits and other materials to fight the virus. She explained that while it may appear as if the number of COVID-19 cases is rising, the figures represent an increase in testing which is useful in containing the virus.

WITH THE PEOPLE

On the other matters highlighted by the opposition MP, the minister said that even while the PPP/C was out of power it was also out in the fields to address the needs and concerns of Guyanese and will now utilise the 2020 Budget to assist them tangibly.

“I can tell you that all the projects that they are claiming credit for were projects initiated by the PPP/Civic government, including securing and committing funds to those projects… many of the projects that they took over that were in progress, it took them five years to even reach a 50 to 70 per cent completion,” she said.

Listing a few, Campbell-Sukhai pointed to the East Coast road project, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), and the West Demerara Road Project.

On the matter of the renaming of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, which has been submitted as a motion to Parliament, Campbell-Sukhai said the Amerindian Act does not limit what Guyana’s first peoples can call themselves.

She told the House that the opposition seems to be fighting over terminology instead of representing the people and fighting to eradicate their challenges faced. “Don’t make a petty matter, a national matter,” she cautioned.

In its entirety, Minister Campbell-Sukhai said that Budget 2020 is a breath of fresh air to the Guyanese public and asked that it be provided with the full support of the House.