AS the budget debate gets underway, I anticipate that the opposition parties will display, at the least, some measure of self-respect and professionalism, as they seek to establish the right way forward with government.
This is not about personal or party glory. This is about people, who seek a better life, with better living standards for both themselves and their families – especially our children. Further, we need to think about the development of our communities as a whole also.
All it takes is a little commonsense, and a parliament that listens to its people. After all, it is the people’s parliament.

The government has painstakingly formulated a budget, $192.8 B that basically caters to the development of its people and the nation as a whole, for the year 2012. That simply means, every good opposition party can now robustly argue with constructive, not obstructive nor destructive criticism. No need to remind ourselves that it is what parliamentary opposition parties do.

But I hope, in the interim, that we don’t forget how far we have come as a nation of six races, despite years of accusation from different quarters of suggested racism, corruption, rigged elections; and all the other things that weren’t done right by the then PNC, now the PNCR; there’s the AFC holding some sort of trump over both the PPP/C and the PNCR, and to add fairness and some balance to those voices who once accused the government of the day of the same. There is no more room for that sort of life, for we are all Guyanese and we will live as one.

The PPP/C won the October 1992 General Elections, and from then to present, has done so much, in such a short space of time. Today, this very PPP/C government will continue to count, spend and build a prosperous Guyana with the taxpayers’ money, in a very prudent manner.
They will continue to build on Cheddi Jagan’s legacy.

Therefore, I do believe that we have matured enough as a people, especially with the passing of 2011 general elections, to deal with the country’s political and social problems, to move on and give our people a life with better health programmes, better education and affordable housing and electricity for the poor, with more roads and air and river transport to cater for our indigenous people, and those living away from the humdrum of city life.

We can do this with a one-voice parliament. The ones to suffer at the hands of the selfish politician, or opposition party, would be the layman, the poor of this country and the government is hellbent to ensure that does not happen, on President Ramotar’s watch.

This is surely an historic period in the political life of Guyana.