When enough is enough!

Jul 06, 2014 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Rajendra Bissessar
It would take a lot to list the wrongdoing of the PPP. The list is well known and includes nepotism, favoritism, and the giving away of Guyana’s patrimony to friends and foreigners through secret lucrative deals. The corruption of the PNC pales before that of the PPP.
Just recently we saw Cabinet intervening and giving China Railway a huge contract for the construction of the East Coast Demerara four-lane road by objecting to the company that was selected by the Central Tender Board as having qualified for the contract. We all know the relationship this company has with an ex-official of the government who was in a habit of giving away the people’s resources to his friends.
And we must not forget that this government has not held Local Government Elections for over 17 years and now that everything is in place, the government is actually refusing to set the date for the elections. The Local Government system is in disarray. Too many councilors and many of those on the lists have died or migrated, and so the local communities have become rudderless. As a consequence, their communities have fallen into disrepair.
Local government elections, so vital to the lives of our people, are not being held because the PPP is deadly afraid of facing the populace, and so garbage is not being collected and the drains, canals and streets have fallen into disrepair. Today we are seeing the government in its death throes scurrying to repair some streets, hoping that the streets would bring it votes.
The government has allocated $10,000 per school child this year. This amounts to a little more than $800 per month. A pittance, while they are diverting billions into the pockets of their already rich friends.  Former President Jagdeo gets over three million dollars a month in pension. They refuse to disclose how much more is expended on him.  While the Minister of Health says we cannot afford to buy MRI equipment for our hospitals, the Former President took a trip abroad on a luxury jet because he had dengue fever. On the other hand, the old people who served Guyana faithfully are receiving a pittance, and even this would have been much less if it was not for the agitation of the AFC.
The rags to riches in record time of some government ministers and their friends contrasts glaringly with the plight of especially the small farmers, the sugar workers, the carpenters, the masons, the bauxite workers, and especially the unemployed, which percentage seems to be a state secret. The youths, the graduates are without jobs, hence without a future, a life filled with despair.
There are those who think that nothing would change, but the last elections demonstrated a vote of no confidence in the PPP government. The PPP was the incumbent, in full control of the government and Parliament, it had the state resources at its disposal, it had money to burn from the cronies it helped to get rich. The fact that it still lost the majority demonstrates that the people have begun to realize the betrayal of the Jagans’ legacy as pronounced by no other than Jagan’s daughter at Babu John during one of his memorial services. This betrayal is recognized by the majority of PPP supporters. The only thing left for the PPP is to instill fear into its supporters by pointing to the atrocities of the PNC.
But the reality is that we fought the PNC because of such atrocities. Can we now condone the same kind of atrocities because it comes from the PPP? We have seen that this deterioration, betrayal and massive corruption of the PPP caused myself, Gerhard Ramsaroop, Prakash Ramjattan, Moses Nagamootoo, Ralph Ramkarran, and other genuine stalwarts, to abandon the PPP.  Continued support of the cabal that has hijacked the PPP spells abandonment of all we fought for, spells abandonment of our youths, our country and our future.
And as if I have not said enough, the PPP has descended to another level of abandonment of all that the Guyanese people struggled for, universal suffrage – the right of every adult to vote for the government of their choice. You will conclude, and quite rightly, that you exercised your franchise and you are right, but that franchise was to determine who controls the highest decision-making body in the land, parliament. It is parliament that makes the laws, and very importantly, it is parliament that determines how the taxpayers’ money is to be spent.
The voters of this country put the parliament of Guyana under the control of the opposition. The opposition prudently cut areas where money is being wasted or misspent and the government moved to the court, and the court in the opinion of many lawyers, ruled incorrectly that parliament cannot cut the budget, but approve or disapprove expenditures.
The government was fully aware that certain expenditures would be “not approved”. To by-pass this, the government bundled monies that the opposition would most likely not approve with those it would, thus forcing the Opposition to “not approve” the entire bundle. The opposition did not just “not approve” but informed the government that it would support any supplemental brought before parliament to cover the areas it wanted to approve.
Instead of doing this the government, for political gains, screamed that the workers cannot be paid and that some needed programmes cannot be funded. Months passed and still no supplemental Appropriation Bill has been presented to parliament.
Lo and behold, the government is presenting a statement of excess to cover monies spent by the government for May and June. Monies not approved by parliament. The government is asking the opposition to now vote in favour of monies it spent illegally. But it still has not brought a supplemental Appropriation Bill for monies to be spent for the rest of the year. The reasonable assumption here is that it would continue to spend illegally and unconstitutionally, and then come again in a few months asking parliament to approve another set of illegal spending, as it refuses even now to present to parliament Supplementary appropriations.
What is in fact happening is that the PPP has run roughshod over the highest decision-making body in the land, to remove any control over what it does with the people’s money, and wants the opposition to support its dastardly act.
There is no way that the Alliance For Change can by any stretch of imagination support this Bill. There is no way the AFC can approve this illegal spending. It cannot support the emasculation of the sovereignty of the people that is exercised through its representatives in parliament.
The PPP, through its own seeming madness, has created a constitutional crisis. In fact, the PPP by its actions has torn this section of the Constitution to shreds, clearly demonstrating no respect for the Guyana Constitution and the rule of law. It is now saying it can spend what it wants, when it wants, how much it wants, where it wants, without the approval of parliament.
Anyone in my opinion can appreciate why under these circumstances the AFC has commenced serious discussions for a motion of no-confidence in the present PPP government, as this government has now signaled that it is above the law, above Parliament, and above the Constitution of this land.
This sad state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue as all are involved, all would be consumed.

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