The combined opposition is not worth its salt if it allows this budget to pass

Apr 02, 2012 Letters

Dear Sir,
Last Friday, March 30, 2012, Minister Ashni Singh may have read the wrong budget to this nation. Guyanese should reject it; they should demand changes that reflect seriousness, on the part of the government, towards good governance, financial prudency and rectitude and national development. The opposition should find ways of informing the public to take such and other appropriate actions.
Prior to the reading of the national budget, Guyana’s Finance Minister, Mr. Ashni Singh was reported, in the Chronicle, to have said that we (Guyanese) should expect a people’s budget. If that report was accurate then, it is quite possible that the minister may have read the wrong budget.
There is nothing in that document that speaks to the development of the ordinary citizen of Guyana; nothing to motivate public servants to make public service a career; nothing to show gratitude to our pensioners, who have worked for years at different jobs to develop this country; and nothing to encourage our young people to stay and develop Guyana. Therefore, the one thing that the budget does not focus on is people. We were deceived by the Minister of Finance.
Instead we see that the government has set aside billions of taxpayers’ dollars as handouts to faltering corporations like GPL, and GUYSUCO. Those handouts should really go towards the development of human resources and the creation of jobs for numerous amounts of unemployed youths in every region of this beloved country of ours and to give pensioners more dignity in the twilight of their years. But as we see unemployment and making our senior citizens comfortable appear to be unimportant and do not rank in priority as the need to help friends of the government.
Also, there is no word on the 16 percent VAT. All the political parties promised to address VAT. However, the government’s budget said nothing about any adjustment about that tax.
Absolutely nothing, in the budget, to deal with or root out corruption and disentangle the government, and state from the criminal underworld- trafficking in narcotics and smuggling- which continue to negatively affect legitimate corporations and businesses.
The underworld has been able to build structures which are deeply entrenched in the state apparatus. Those structures are very difficult to dismantle even by the current oppositional forces. There has to be another radical way.
It is clear that the budget was crafted to keep Guyana’s economy on the most disgraceful path that the former President Jagedo has left as his legacy. It allows the PPP/C to use the resources of Guyana like their personal property; their credit card.
But the opposition must not facilitate this burden, which we and our children were forced to bear, for twenty years, in the name of development. They must act now and stop this madness. That is precisely the reason the majority of Guyanese gave them control of the parliament on November 28, 2011.
One way by which they can do that is by educating the masses on the meaning of the 2012 budget. This is really important because it could lead to greater empowerment of the people and encourage them to take appropriate actions against yet another document that brings oppression to the already oppressed, particularly in the public sector, and those who are unemployed.
The opposition must find innovative ways of unpacking the figures and their meanings in the budget to the public. They need to put the numbers it in local language that the “man in the street” understands. Avoid the financial technical terms, and jargon and communicate with the average person, who wants to know but cannot cut through the heavy language used in financial documents such as the budget.
One and two television programmes and a corner meeting, here and there, will never be enough to inform the people about it. There has to be a sustained effort by APNU and AFC to raise awareness and educate and interact with the masses on the budget; to demonstrate its short comings; and to show what could have been done differently.
Finally, I hope that APNU and AFC understand that the people are depending on them to protect their interest and advance this nation of ours. No opposition that has knowledge of the extant socio- economic circumstances in very vulnerable communities could really allow such a budget to pass.
If the combined opposition permits the national budget of 2012, as presented by government, to pass then it is not worth its salt.
Name withheld

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The combined opposition is not worth its salt if it allows this budget to pass

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