Ramotar chides divided working class for budget cuts

May 02, 2012 News

---

 

 

…says Opposition would’ve never risked it against a united labour force  

 “I don’t think that he (Granger) believes that he and I can sit down at a table and run the country as if it were a casino…I refuse to be a part of that. We must deal with what is good and what is right for Guyana.” – President Ramotar

By Gary Eleazar

Prefacing his presentation with the exigencies of the global environment

which has been leading to higher unemployment around the world, President Donald Ramotar yesterday lashed out at the political opposition and also took an accusatory swipe at what he described as a divided working class.
Ramotar was making his maiden address to a May Day Rally as Head of State, and his presentation was as charged as one could be for such an occasion. The attendance was a shadow of years past, but this certainly was no deterrent to the country’s leader.
Flanked by his deputy, Samuel Hinds, Labour Minister Dr Nanda Gopaul and Culture Minister Dr Frank Anthony, among others, by the time the President rose to speak from the podium on the National Park stage, it was clear that the day religiously observed by labour in some circles of the world had lost its appeal.
This did little to daunt Ramotar, who proceeded to inform those persons that had remained (numbering less than one thousand) that a lot of what the political opposition has been able to achieve in the House was due to a divided labour movement in Guyana.
The President asserted that in today’s world, Guyana finds itself at a difficult crossroad not just from external forces, but from factors within.
Speaking to one of the more influential external factors that has affected Guyana in recent times, Ramotar reminded of the cut in preferential pricing for Guyana’s sugar by the European Union.
This he said was done “at the stroke of a pen” and the Europeans reneged on a long standing agreement that cost Guyana some US$45M a year, “and we were still able to avoid the worst consequences.”
This avoidance of an even more dire effect, he stressed, was as a result of investment in the country and the fact that the administration has from 1992 been open to scrutiny.
The Head of State spoke of investment in the field of education and pointed to Guyanese already reaping the rewards. He drew reference to recent results at CAPE and other regional examinations where the nation has excelled.

 

HYPOCRISY
Turning his attention to the 2012 budget cuts, the President lashed out at both Brigadier (ret’d) David Granger who heads A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan.
“What hypocrisy,” said Ramotar as he spoke of the opposition’s justifications of the $1B cut to the GPL subsidy.
Ramotar said that even though the administration went at length to address the concerns of the opposition, and pointed out that there is heavy investment to stem the technical and commercial losses which stakeholders have been lamenting, the opposition still made the cut.

In seeking to aptly illustrate his point, the President referred to the US$5M Submarine Cable being anchored in the Demerara River, as well as the 69KV cable being erected to reduce the losses of which the opposition spoke.
He said that the position was explained to the Opposition and the point was emphasised that the subsidy was for the power company’s fuel bill, to ensure that the consumer tariff was not increased.
Speaking directly to any future negotiations to be held with the Opposition, President Ramotar said that while he embraces the forum, he “will not be held to ransom”. He stressed that the cuts to the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) programmes have immediately threatened some US$10M of direct inflow, and the nation’s Hydro Electric Project has now been also threatened.
According to the President, the US$10M was supposed to have gone towards the setting up of a fund for small loans,
The Hydro-electric project, he stated emphatically, holds the possibility of eliminating Guyana’s dependence on fossil fuel, taking the country into a “club of a selected few”.
Ramotar pointed out that all of this was explained to the opposition as being in the best interest of the workers, given that the subsidy will mean that there will not have to be any increased tariffs.
“The Prime Minister answered every single one of their questions in Parliament, yet they take away $1B in subsidy from GPL. How could such a move be helpful to the working class?”

 

GRANGER AND TALKS
“Today I hear Granger say that he is willing to talk, if we give them what he wants… What do I have to give him?”
Ramotar lashed out at the Opposition Leader saying that anyone who has an interest in Guyana’s working class should have supported the Budget “unconditionally.”
“There can be no conditions for the support of the Budget. I ask again, what does he (Granger) want me to give when they cut the LCDS?”
“What do I have to give to Granger for him to come to the table and make this possible for the Guyanese working people? What do I have to give to him to support something as noble as this that can only bring benefit to Guyana?”
The President stated adamantly, “I don’t think that he (Granger) believes that he and I can sit down at a table and run the country as if it were a casino …I refuse to be a part of that, we must deal with what is good and what is right for Guyana.”
Ramotar was steadfast that the decisions taken by the leaders must not be for “what is good for the PPP or what is good for APNU or what is good for the AFC…the bottom line must be what is good for the people of this country”.
The President did appeal to his political opponents to find enough patriotism within themselves to “realize what they are doing.”
The clearly displeased Head of State did, however, roundly criticize the opposition’s stance on government employees. “I am upset. I’m at a loss to understand the logic, and I can only conclude that they are being motivated by vindictiveness, by revenge, and possibly even by hate.”
To emphasise his incomprehension at the opposition cuts to the Budget, Ramotar reminded the gathering that in the face of criticism, he had instructed that many of the documents being asked for by the opposition, be released.
He reminded of the closed-door session held with the parties to elucidate on the Hydro Power project, and said that he had committed to the same undertaking with other projects such as the Marriott, “but they were like a broken record, repeating the same thing, not having anything new to say.”

 

LABOUR MUST UNITE
The President did not limit his lamentations and verbal punches to the political opposition. He insisted that “the working class has to do more.”
He said that the working class must recognize that the PPP from the inception has been a working class party, “…and that we were formed in order to serve the working people and ensure that they were not disadvantaged.”
To this end, Ramotar said that in the current difficult local and international conditions, workers must understand that they “must also make their contribution to the struggle that the PPP started so long ago”.
The Head of State was adamant that one of the things that labour in Guyana must strive to do urgently is to “heal the wounds of division to bring unity to the working class of Guyana”.
He said that it was the fact that the labour union is so divided which made it possible for “Ramjattan and the others to do what they did in Parliament…to cut the budget that affects our people. It is because you have division that they have done so. If the working class in Guyana had been a united one, then the opposition parties would not have risked making the budget cuts.”
The president concluded his presentation to the workers that had marched in solidarity with each other by noting that, “it’s that division that has empowered them…I say to you, Comrades, that we must not judge a man, we must not judge a political party by what they say of themselves, but we must judge them by their actions.”

---

---