–Dr Jagdeo says, calls out Opposition for ‘predictable rhetoric,’ ‘lazy approach’

CRITICISING the Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), for its “lazy approach” to the ongoing debate on Budget 2024, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, said that Guyanese could expect them to continue on this same “train.”

While expressing his profound disappointment with what is playing out in the Opposition benches, Dr Jagdeo, during a press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, remarked that this is predictable, since most of APNU+AFC’s parliamentarians lack policy-making experience.

“I was expecting by today, that there would’ve been more profound analyses of the budget and those preliminary reactions from the Opposition after the budget presentation would have evolved into a more studied approach,” he said.

Dr Jagdeo said that from the citizens’ perspective, they did not expect anything remotely different from the APNU+AFC.

Addressing the inconsequential narratives that the Opposition has been peddling, the PPP General Secretary said that because of the repetitive rhetoric, it is difficult for him to put forth a technical defence.

“This is the usual sort of thing. It is a lazy approach to [the] budget; as I said before, it is predictable rhetoric and it represents the hollowness of the Opposition’s analytical capabilities and it also exposes their inexperience in terms of the budgetary process,” Dr Jagdeo firmly remarked.

Highlighting the Opposition’s “slogan” approach to this year’s fiscal package, the PPP General Secretary said that none of them have participated in preparing a budget and most of them have never had any major policy experience.

He said: “So this doesn’t happen overnight. It comes with experience and it comes with understanding the nature of the economy, the dynamics of the international community and you have to craft a budget to address both variables; the country’s position in the world and its interaction with the rest of the world and the realities of the economy in Guyana, and ensuring that the measures in the budget live up to those realities

“We can’t get that from the Opposition,” Dr Jagdeo said, adding that because of this, Guyana could expect the Opposition bench to sing the same tune they have been singing since Monday.
Since the commencement of the budget debate on Monday, the government parliamentarians have been refuting the claims that the Opposition have been purporting.

Last week, President, Dr Irfaan Ali said the governing PPP/C will continue with its transformation agenda, as this year’s budget outlines several initiatives to provide disposable income to citizens.

He said: “All of these measures are aimed at increasing disposable income, putting more money in the pockets of people, bolstering income for vulnerable groups, and of course, improving the system of services, governance, and the provision of services for our country.”