Ramotar’s Presidency is the weakest since independence – Granger reasons
APNU Leader, David Granger
Opposition Leader David Granger says President Donald Ramotar will soon understand, if he hasn’t, that every action has a reaction; hinting that his presidency is likely the worst since Guyana became a Co-operative Republic in 1966.
Granger believes that Ramotar has been weakened as the President by his administration and MP’s; explaining that since the commencement of the Tenth Parliament the Head of State has been oblivious to actions in the House.
“If anybody asks which is the weakest presidency we have had since we became a Republic, I don’t think you would be surprised at the answer,” Granger said while appearing on the radio program ‘Hard Talk’ on 90.1 Love FM.
President Donald Ramotar.
He added “President Donald Ramotar is not leading a successful administration; he is leading the administration in a quagmire.”
Granger warned that the failure of the president to assent o several Bills and implement several Parliamentary Resolutions will “cost him dearly.”
He went onto outline several shortcomings of the Donald Ramotar led administration; pointing to the failed Amaila Falls Hydro Power Project which he said has been futile largely because his Party exposed its flaws; the Specialty Hospital construction which has been halted and the Cheddi Jagan Airport expansion project which Granger said is not going according to plan because of poor preparation among others.
Interestingly, the administration has blamed the failure of many of these projects on the non – support of the opposition.
But according to Granger, the opposition mainly exercised scrutiny and has been successful in that regard while highlighting what he said was heavy criticism being faced by the President because of these failures.
“There are problems for us too and that is that Mr Ramotar has not implemented resolutions passed by the majority opposition… this shows that the administration is hard hearted and he can’t take credit for that.”
Granger says the budget cuts are definitely another problem but argued that it was only a problem for the government. To this end, the pointed to the pending No – Confidence Motion against the administration which is expected to be debated when the parliamentary recess ends in October.
He spoke of willful defiance on the part of the Finance Minister in expending some $4.5B that was disapproved by the Parliament.
“From the start of Tenth Parliament I advised the President to set up a tripartite budget committee but that has failed largely because of the government,” he explained.
The Opposition Leader defended the work of the Parliament; saying it has been successful even as many, including former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran have expressed opposing views.