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Deputy Speaker complains of increasing intimidation from government for speaking out
Kaieteur News – Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Lennox Shuman on Thursday complained that he is facing increasing intimidation from the Government for speaking out.
Shuman, who is also the leader of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), after the March 2-3, 2020 Regional and General elections, had formed a joinder with The New Movement Party (TNM) and A New and United Guyana (ANUG) to claim one parliamentary seat.
Deputy Speaker of National Assembly, Lennox Shuman
Although Guyana’s constitution allows for a joinder system, it does not govern how thee recipients use the Parliamentary seat, or who represents the party.
The three political parties made an agreement that Shuman, as leader of LJP, would be the one representing the joinder list for the first two years of the 5-year-term of the current parliament. ANUG’s leader would then take over for the next two years, while TNM will fill that seat for the final year.
As the current Member of Parliament (MP) representing the joinder list, Shuman was elected as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and was also appointed Aviation Advisor by the government.
Shuman, however, told Kaieteur News on Thursday that “low ranking members of the government is trying to intimidate him by threatening to terminate his services as Aviation Advisor, if he continues to criticize and speak out against them.
Recently, the Deputy Speaker was reportedly insulted via a Facebook post made by the Local Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall, for criticizing the government’s seven percent increase for public servants.
He had called out the government for failing to deliver on its promise of increasing public servant’s salary by 50%.
The Government has refuted that it had ever promised to increase wages by 50%, and the Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag, claimed that photos of posters promising a 50% increase were photo shopped.
Shuman then moved to quote various media articles to back up his result.
As a result, Dharamlall publicly stated that Shuman was a liar (“Pinocchio”), imposter, and is only speaking out because his tenure as MP and Deputy Speaker is soon coming to an end.
Speaking with Kaieteur News, Shuman said that the intimidation has increased.
He claimed that low ranking government officials have been threatening that he will be sacked, if he continues to speak against the government.
Shuman added, too, that they are also outraged about a recent statement he made criticizing the government. His statement was the government was “only playing crisscrossing around Guyana and the indigenous people have not really been benefitting”.
“They have been telling me that I should be grateful that government made me Aviation Advisor, and that I must be careful with the things I say or else I will lose the position”, Shuman told Kaieteur News.
He promised, however, that he will not be intimidated and reminded that although he has a job with the government, he is a part of the parliamentary opposition.
“As a parliamentary opposition, it is my duty call out the government when they are wrong” Shuman related.
The LPJ leader pointed out that he only has one and half years left as MP and Deputy Speaker, and will use it to represent his indigenous people, as well as to ensure that the government is held in check.
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