WHEN it comes to Venezuela’s threats to Guyana’s sovereign territory, the Association of American States (OAS), CARICOM, the United Kingdom, Canada, the EU and the State Department stand unconditionally with Guyana, but not APNU+AFC’s Member of Parliament, Roysdale Forde.

The support of this wannabe leader of the PNC comes with conditions, but shockingly, it appears Forde wants to see a return to the despised ‘ Guyana National Service (GNS)’ programme. When the dictator Forbes Burnham, Forde’s hero, launched it in the 1970s, the GNS sparked such widespread panic that it traumatised a nation and caused a mass exodus of people from Guyana.

Writing in Village Voice, Forde, like a confused lawyer fumbling for his handwritten notes in a courtroom, lays out a set of contradictory points that make sense only to himself and his echo chamber in the PNC/R. Instead of condemning Nicholas Maduro’s barefaced aggression and rallying his supporters to stand on guard, Forde demands that the PPP/C put “our house in order.”

Thank heavens Guyana today is a “house” – proverbially speaking – and not the haphazard “cake shop” that APNU+AFC ran between 2015 and 2020. In Forde’s delusional worldview, national unity is a precondition to national security. Venezuela’s aggression poses an existential threat to our nation and that alone makes national security our first and only priority.

Instead, Forde is miffed at the PPP/C for not inviting the main parliamentary opposition to participate in the 55th Republic Day flag raising celebration, an event that is administered by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, something minister Charles Ramson has apologised for. However, Forde sees it as evidence that “no government can truly make a claim to espousing oneness, unity and inclusiveness and exclude others.”

Forde goes on to state that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is Guyana’s only “viable path” to resolve the territorial dispute with Venezuela. With the same stroke of his keyboard, he chastises the government for being negligent when it comes to military spending. He faults the government for spending billions on infrastructure while allocating a smaller amount to the GDF.

Since taking office, the PPP/C has invested more than $155 billion to beef up the GDF with equipment, advanced training and upgrading our defence architecture. A total of $50 billion was allocated to the military in Budget 2025. Is it enough?

For what? It would not be prudent for our Commander-in-Chief to go around telling our enemy how long he believes our forces could hold the fort until the international community weighs in to thwart Maduro’s unbridled aggression. In his ‘Art of War,’ Sun Tzu says “Conceal your dispositions, and your condition will remain secret, which leads to victory.”

Last April, Guyana spent 39.5 million Euros on a military patrol vessel manufactured by the French shipbuilder Ocea. The dictator Maduro was so irked by the acquisition that his vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, took to the social media platform X to call out Guyana as a “fake victim.”

I made an effort to review APNU+AFC’s budgets when the coalition government had a former military commander as president. Recognising that “Venezuela has been ratcheting up her unjust claim,” the government allocated $9.1 billion to the GDF in 2015. The total expenditure was $221 billion. Easy to say, “we didn’t have oil.”

To Forde’s argument, APNU+AFC spent $13 billion on infrastructure. A separate line item for $1.6 billion went to upgrade the Sheriff St./Mandela Avenue road. In 2016, another $5 billion was pumped into the reconstruction of Sheriff St. Nothing in 2017 for the stretch of road. But in 2018, another $2 billion went to Sheriff St. Where did it all go? Segue to 2025 and any sensible driver knows that if he is in a hurry to get somewhere, Sheriff St. and Mandela Ave. should be avoided at all costs.

In 2016, APNU+AFC tabled a budget totalling $231 billion. When it came to the GDF, the budget speech to parliament states: “Our focus will be to build on our achievements of 2015 and to further expand our outreach, especially in the hemisphere and in Asia and Africa through mutually beneficial cooperation programmes.” No new money was allocated for the GDF.

Budget 2017 came at $250 billion. Of it, $14.1 billion was spent on roads and bridges, more, if you add the hinterland regions. Again, no mention of the military, defence, army or GDF.

What about 2018 when the total budget went up to $267 billion? APNU+AFC allocated $35 billion to infrastructure, less than half – $14.3 billion – on improving and upgrading the country’s road network. And for our military? Nothing. In 2019 APNU+AFC was a caretaker government and with a retired Brigadier at the helm, the coalition sat on their hands.

And since Forde has the temerity to demand that the PPP/C “get its house in order,” it is worth reminding readers that the APNU+AFC distributed approximately 7,000 house lots when in office. The PPP/C has already distributed more than 40,000 residential house lots since taking office in 2020.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.