A TRAGIC DAY FOR GUYANA
Written by
Thursday, 26 April 2012 02:14
Source - Guyana Chronicle
‘FULL HOUSE’: All the seats in the National Assembly were occupied yesterday. (Adrian Narine photo)
FINANCE Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh yesterday referred to the evil intent behind the draconian budgetary cuts imposed on various entities, especially Office of the President and Office of the Prime Minister, as a wielding of ‘tyrannical scissors’.
The tyranny of the AFC/APNU partners is apparent when one considers the scant regard they have shown for the welfare of the nation’s working-class people, especially ordinary staff members of all the entities, the budgetary allocations of which have been de-gutted.
GINA and NCN employees were tearful and apprehensive about their future, because many of them are sole bread-earners of their families; some are single parents with little children and babies; and through the facilitating mechanisms initiated by government many have acquired homes and cars, so they have mortgages and loans to repay, as well as scheduled hire purchase payments.
A young first-time supporter of APNU, currently employed at GINA, tearfully said yesterday “Thank you, Mr. Granger and Mr. Ramjattan. You promised the young people of this country that you will provide us with employment opportunities; today you are taking away our jobs.”
One young man, also from GINA, who recently graduated from the Kuru Kuru vocational college and can now contribute to help his single parent mother to provide a better life for his siblings poignantly asked: “What do I tell my mother, that just when life was beginning to get better for us, with a steady income available every month, that I have suddenly become jobless?” One mother of three employed by NCN tearfully asked what she will tell her children when they ask her for food that she would not be able to supply.
These are not figures on paper, but real people that the joint opposition have suddenly wielded their “tyrannical scissors” upon.
Hinterland communities, where Guyana’s first peoples are now enjoying the benefits of upgraded facilities that were denied them under the PNC regime, are now facing a retraction of the development in their communities that have been so ably piloted by a Bharrat Jagdeo administration; and recently poised for expansion under a Donald Ramotar presidency. Whether Dr. Ashni Singh, brilliant financial strategist that he is, will be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat to save the hinterland programmes from folding is a question that is in the heart of every Amerindian citizen in this land. Way to go, Garrido-Lowe and Dr. Norton. One would expect betrayal of the indigenous peoples by Granger and Ramjattan, but when their own leaders that they trusted helped to wield the “tyrannical scissors” to cut budgetary allocations meant for hinterland development, then the betrayal cuts deeper than the scissors can.
Today is a sad day for Guyana, because today marks the day when the PNC, in its re-configured form of APNU, has once more trodden on the working-class peoples of the land. The vendetta of AFC members is a vainglorious attempt by PPP/C rejects to demonstrate to their former comrades that they have power despite not being able to ascend to the presidency.
And thus, once more, the Guyanese working-class people are held hostage to the power-drunk elitists, who earn millions of dollars, yet begrudge the ordinary employees of state entities mere bread-and-butter salaries. What a tragic day for Guyana.
