Budget 2026: A matchless propaganda

Feb 06, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – Because the budget debate is a no man’s that devours all comers in its vise, my first call was to boycott it.  Jawboning.  Guyanese used to use jackass next to that word.  It applies.  Consider these simple truths that may be tough to swallow.  They are that bitter on the palate, rough on the mind already shrunken from the savaging of too many budget riches (the haves, and superrich).  Or the assaults from receiving too little of its splendor (the have nots, the destitute).

Hon. Minister Vindya Persaud of the PPP Govt. took offense at the Opposition’s equally honourable Natasha Singh-Lewis, who spoke of ‘two-faced governance.’  Dr. Persaud’s thrust came in the form of “transformational progress.”  In all fairness, what else could Minister Persaud’s retort be?  The PPP 2026 budget is an obscenity, a smear of feces across the face of the Guyanese people, impoverished ones?  And what other verbal missile could the Hon. Singh-Lewis launch: the PPP Govt. is one-eyed (private sector), one-eared (doesn’t hear poor people cries), but only one-toothed, because it is good enough not to bite the life out of Guyanese?  C’mon, folks: be fair, be grounded in reality.  For what is a budget debate deep in its guts?

I ask, I answer.  A budget debate is the best propaganda asset, the most productive propaganda resource, and the ultimate in propaganda slyness, when in the hands of the best.  There is none better than the PPP Govt.  The Alis and Jagdeos and Nandlalls (and Vindya Persauds [sorry neighbour]) learned that on the knee of Cheddi Jagan.  And who did he get that mastery from, if not the masters of that game, universe?  Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.  Adolf Hitler came earlier and left earlier, but my thinking is that his teachings about the infinite value of propaganda clearly have been taken to heart in the PPP.  What is good for the paatee is good for de guvment.

This is what the Guyana budget debate distils to, is all about.  The PNC. APNU, WIN, and FGM are aiders and abettors of that PPP propaganda machine.  What they are doing is consorting with and comforting the enemy of the Guyanese people.  They may sincerely think that they are doing well (including putting on a show for their duty-free) by participating in the2026 budget debate, but all they succeed in doing is wringing a knife in the craw of the poor in Guyana, and adding to their mountain of woes.  When the PPP Govt. is persuaded, comes to its senses, and agrees to switch $100 billion from the building budgets, the slush fund (OP) budgets, and the built-in hanky-panky budgets to budget allocations for the impoverished, then it is mission accomplished.  Otherwise, it is huffing and puffing, and wheezing to the inevitable conclusion.  Another successful budget passage under the skillful steerage of one Dr. Ashni K Singh.  Dr. AK Singh is not to be mixed with that Russian of inventive fame, Kalashnikov, the father of the AK-47.  The Guyanese AK Singh has shot to pieces the hopes of Guyanese, hasn’t he?  Somebody should tell me.  I challenge Dr. Ashni to disagree.  Because Lent looms, I modify challenge and sub invite.  See how devout I am!

If ever there was a devout man in the PPP Govt, it just has to be the Right Hon. Auxiliary Archbishop Juan Edghill, who’s also a Doctor of Divinity.  My word, I am awed by these men and women in the PPP.  He told the WIN freshman, Dr. Andre Lewis to “rewrite” his statements and ‘reconsult’ with his intellectual sponsors.  I, too, have a recommendation for Archbishop Edghill: reread Reverend, that good book that is well known.  Archbishop Edghill insisted that the PPP 2026 budget is “pro-poor.”  Then, this man of the cloth, who some different kind of god speaks to, should inform the world why Guyanese are so poor in spirit, how come there are so many who mourn…  Surely, he couldn’t have forgotten those Beatitudes.  Or he needs any reminder from a heathen like me, about that Mosaic Commandment that warns about bearing false witness.  Now that I have done my duty to Archbishop Edghill, Minister Persaud, a vestal sister, if ever there was one, the government and opposition, and the Guyanese people, it is time to close shop today.

The 2026 budget debate is rich with antics, mystics, and heretics; but poor in substance and sustenance for citizens.  The budget is a propaganda creation, and a propaganda production, for the consumption of naïve Guyanese.  It’s a Ponzi scheme and a confidence man’s self-enriching dream come true.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Budget Debate, GHK Lall, PPP, propaganda

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