Rohee accuses opposition of 'dotishness'

Rohee accuses opposition of ‘dotishness’

Feb 23, 2010 News

…but hardly addresses security sector

Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, spent little time on expounding on the budgetary spending on the security sector during his contribution to the Budget Debate. Instead, he focused on trying to debunk the arguments of the opposition.
“What kind of dostishness is this?” Rohee asked in responding to opposition Parliamentarian, Aubrey Norton, who said that the spending of $847 million on a fibre-optic cable through Brazil is unnecessary.
Rohee called for a quality of discussion that would go beyond the routine political issues. He said the arguments of the main opposition party, the PNCR, was “quaint” as in the days when that party was in power and told Guyanese to “dig a pond behind your house and mine fish.”
Rohee then went into talk of “vipers” in responding to opposition criticism of lack of consultation on the crafting of the budget.
“Unless they can be your stooges, they are vipers,” a member of the opposition benches grumbled.
The Home Affairs Minister said the ship “MV Guyana is in safe hands” and said the PPP/C government will stay the course, while recognising that the government must be flexible. Rohee said the PPP/C never said prosperity is around the corner.
“We were never romanticists,” he said, but said prosperity is something that has to be earned and everyone must make their contribution.
He then blasted the opposition for talking about lack of mention in the budget of plans to address corruption, saying they were doing this hoping to pull the sympathy strings.
“What they wanted was for Minister Singh to sex up his speech,” Rohee charged.
He then took on PNCR Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Deborah Backer. He said that Backer claimed the people had lost faith in the Police and that’s why they don’t report matters.
Rohee charged the opposition to say what they have done when the question of domestic violence was raised and what they had done to support the “Stamp it out” campaign against sexual abuse.
“Tell us what initiative your party has organised to address your members and support in the wider society!” Rohee begged of the opposition.
Turning to the Army, Rohee, who is also a member of the Defence Board, assured the House that there is no move to weaken the Guyana Defence Force.
He said that all decisions concerning the Army are aimed at enhancing the overall capacity of the Army to ensure this country’s borders are protected.