MPs can do better in parliamentary debates

Dear Editor,

I thought GPL was the biggest national disgrace in Guyana but clearly the proceedings of the National Assembly of Thursday, January 7th, 2016 seem to be competing with GPL for the prize. I wish I could have used the word loquacious to describe the speakers at those proceedings, but rather the dried-up prose coming from both sides desiccated what should have been an informative and exciting session on how we are making our constitutional bodies independent.

The PPP unfortunately came with a well-planned and executed agenda, to oppose and delay. However, their arguments were based on a fallacy, since factually there were no “cuts” in the allocation to the constitutional bodies. I was shocked that even the usually articulate and reasoned Dr Vindhya Persaud played a role in the circus that was designed exclusively to confuse and misinform. I offer my deepest sympathy to Dr Barton Scotland, who has the unenviable task of managing some immature minds rather than reasoned debate.

But what was even more disappointing was that the government side appeared very unprepared and fell for the political trap set by the PPP, hook, line and sinker, in gullible fashion. Are these the people who took 50 per cent increases in salaries claiming their talent had to be rewarded when they could not even afford 10 per cent for the nurses and the teachers who are moulding and healing this nation every day? Who really is adding more value to the national good?

How can the government allow the PPP to trap them so often over the last few months, in what is now becoming a national embarrassment? The PPP was able to effectively plant the message in the minds of many of those who were watching the proceedings, that the APNU+AFC is undermining the independence of the Constitutional Commission and bodies like the Auditor General Department, when no such thing happened. On every occasion the coalition government offered these bodies more money in 2016 than they had in 2015 and the years before. A case in point, the office of the Auditor General which received $556 million in 2013; $591 million in 2014; and $601 million in 2015, will receive a lump sum of $714 million in 2016. This is basic arithmetic, so where are the cuts?

This is the core reason why Guyana as one of the potentially richest countries bordering the Caribbean Sea, is in reality one of the poorest. Our misfortune has little to do with commodity prices and everything to do with a nation and its people that is divided at the top.

If young people watch those proceedings of January 7, I am convinced that Caribbean Airlines will have to increase its airlift out of Guyana. Hide that videotape.

The members of parliament can all do better. Even rum shops have better debates.

Yours faithfully,

Sase Singh