–Jagdeo says, blazes opposition for having no vision, no plan for the future

“PURE nonsense” is how People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo described the opposition’s lofty promises, which simply just recycles the government’s initiatives and unjustifiably inflates them threefold.

During his Thursday press conference at Freedom House, Jagdeo reflected on the presentations of the Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton and his Parliamentarians.
One common theme that the General Secretary highlighted was the “desperate” attempt by the Opposition to rewrite its sordid track record and Guyana’s history.

During the closing of the Budget 2025 debate, Norton and several of his parliamentarians touted “a people-centred strategy” for development, which includes a slew of social services, and the alleviation of the high cost of living.
However, Jagdeo reminded the Guyanese populace not only of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)/A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s unfulfilled promises but also the economic destruction they caused.
Norton’s presentation was predictably riddled with “contradictions and confusion”, according to the General Secretary.

Some of the promises made by the Opposition Leader were addressed by Jagdeo, who explained how unfeasible and inconsistent they are.
Moving from the opposition’s promises in the oil and gas sector to social services, Jagdeo said he wondered if the Opposition Leader stopped to think about what he was telling the Guyanese people.
Although Norton has criticised the government for how the country’s oil revenues are being managed, his plan that he presented is calling for double spending from the oil resources.
It is important to understand that these plans that require double the spending from the oil resources are towards recurrent expenditure and not capital expenditure, which could spell trouble for the economy if implemented.
Jagdeo also dealt with the opposition’s promise of hiking wages and salaries in the public sector by 35 per cent, a promise, he said, would cost about $517 billion, a sum more than the $512 billion of oil revenues that will be used to help fund Budget 2025.

He said: “It’s pure nonsense. You’re spending more on wages and salaries, if that’s what they mean; only in the public sector, than we collect now and then leader of the Opposition gets up (in the National Assembly) and says too much spending, we must be careful about oil prices being reduced.
Jagdeo said: “Once you increase wages, you know you can’t cut it. You can cut a capital project. You can stop building a school or a road, but you can’t cut back wages for people.”
Notably, last October, a landmark agreement was reached between the government and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), resulting in a 10 per cent salary increase for over 14,000 educators, adding $2.5 billion to their income.
The agreements outline further increases of eight per cent in 2025, culminating in a cumulative 46 per cent salary increase for public servants from 2021 to 2025.
Given the slew of vows and lack of fiscal responsibility, Jagdeo said: “APNU+AFC have no vision; they have no plan for the future.”

The extravagant promises by the opposition, which are being interpreted by some as a means of insulting voters’ intelligence, also include them substantially increasing the income-tax threshold far beyond the $130,000 figure currently in place, without any explanation of how it would be funded, the General Secretary highlighted.
“Any fool, a clown, a donkey could say I’ll do ten times more,” Jagdeo said.

However, unlike the opposition, Jagdeo highlighted how the PPP/C Government uses economics, and the context which Guyana exists in to craft policies that will improve the lives of the Guyanese people.
It is against this backdrop that a budget is crucial.
The General Secretary, who also serves as Guyana’s Vice-President, said that a budget is a policy tool, and it has to lay out a whole range of initiatives beyond just numbers.
He said: “It’s a document that allows you to achieve a stated vision,” adding that the opposition lacked this in their presentations.
Further, the Vice-President said that the opposition is “untrustworthy”, and this can even be seen in the change in the figures to fund their proposals.
He then flayed them for their shift in rhetoric, and the lofty promises, saying: “They can’t understand sustainability even if it hits them in their head.”

NOT CHANGED
Despite the opposition’s attempt to reinvent themselves, their true colours are still vibrant as ever, as the statements made by its members indicate this.
Although the APNU is pushing the narrative of being ‘people-centred,’ the Vice-President said this is “far from the truth”.

Jagdeo said the opposition has not changed, and this could be proven by just looking at Norton defending the PNC for banning basic food items.
Speaking on the PNC’s rule, which saw the fundamental rights of Guyanese being trampled upon, Jagdeo said: “They made us criminals for eating bread,” adding: “Whether you were a PPP supporter or PNC supporter, when you

ate a loaf of bread or a slice of bread made from wheat or they caught you with a slice of bread, you would go to jail.”
So, it is duplicitous for the APNU to contend that the PPP/C administration ignores the plight of the ordinary Guyanese, given its history.

Additionally, the APNU’s sordid track record does not only date back to the 80s and early 90s but also recently, 2015-2020.
From 2015 to 2020, Guyanese saw the implementation of over 350 new taxes and measures, which targetted their pockets.