Shuman attacked in Parliament; police still to respond

Feb 05, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Lenox Shuman—representative of the Joinder List in the National Assembly—has reported threats made against him in the House allegedly by Vice Chairman of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), Vinceroy Jordan—a report that is yet to see action being taken by the Guyana Police Force.
Shuman, who also serves as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, gave the damning report to the House yesterday as he roasted and deliberately disassociated himself from the Members of Parliament of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.

Deputy Speaker, Lenox Shuman

The Deputy Speaker in his presentation to the Budget debates sought to use the opportunity to clarify his deliberate attempts to disassociate himself and party from the APNU+AFC Members of Parliament (MPs) to the point of physically relocating himself in the dome of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) where Parliament is being held temporarily.
To this end, he disclosed to members of the House that the threat against him by the PNC/R Vice Chairman, was reported to Speaker of the House, Manzoor Nadir; the parliamentary Chip Whips and the Guyana Police Force.
According to Shuman however, he is still awaiting any action to be taken on the part of the police in relation to the alleged threat.
With his focus on APNU+AFC MPs, Shuman in describing the individuals holding the elected offices as some very well paid, taxpayers’ paid hecklers, told the House that instead of sanctioning Jordan, he was in fact promoted to Vice Chair of the PNC.
Speaking substantively to the Budget Estimates for 2022, Shuman in his presentation was pellucid of his party’s support presented by the Senior Minister within the Office of the President, with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh.
According to Shuman, “we have to give jack he jacket and at this juncture, I compliment the government for putting together a very robust infrastructure plan for Guyana.”
GUYANA/DUBAI
Adamant that in order to drive economic development in any country “you need a strong and vibrant infrastructure,” he cited as example developed countries such as the US and those in Europe and the importance infrastructure played with regard to their development.
To this end, Shuman told MPs that the Budget has to been seen in context. He used the occasion to also recall that on numerous occasions, there would have been references made to Guyana becoming the new Dubai.
He was adamant however, that Dubai did not become what it is today overnight, “it required responsible and responsive fiscal management.”
Shuman noted that such types of development require investment not just in human capital and that there also needs an economic plan that includes infrastructure, “all these things go hand in hand.”
“When people talk about us suffering today, (and) the new Dubai, it didn’t happen overnight, it takes time and when I look at what it says on what this budget promises – theme—“I look at it contextually.”
With this in mind, he reminded that Dr. Singh’s tenure in Office, since August 2020, has seen the pulling of Guyana out of an economic abyss, levelling it off with Budget 2022 to continue to build the country’s upward movement.
According to Shuman, there needs to be an end of adversarial politics and instead practice cooperative politics, referencing the country’s official name, “the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, it doesn’t say the combative Republic of Guyana.”
Encouraging the political opposition to not just seek to tear down the infrastructure and other programmes in the 2022 Budget, “we have to operate from a position of logic.”
Lambasting his colleagues on his side of the House in the Opposition benches, Shuman said the course of the David Granger-led administration was rudderless and visionless, among other adjectives.
According to Shuman, when a country’s productive sector is unable to function, the population suffers even as he reiterated that the Budget has to be seen in context and cited as example the contract for the Linden to Mabura road link in addition to the Mabura to Lethem Road.
To this end, he posited that very many persons appear to fail to appreciate the importance of those investments for the people that live along the roadway—people that also wants access to the global market.

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