One would have thought that both parliamentary opposition  parties, APNU and the AFC, comprise personalities whose intentions  are well-meaning.

At least, this is what we had been led to believe during their respective campaigns in the 2011 polls. This perception was even furthered, when in the immediate aftermath of the poll results, with its unprecedented result of a combined opposition one- seat majority – they each pledged to seek the mode of consensus in working with the Executive towards resolving  critical issues of the day.
This pledge has been broken, dishonoured, to be specific, on so many occasions, that the nation has been shocked as to the gross irresponsibility of both parties. The budget cuts effected to estimates for both 2012 and 2013 underline what their parliamentary scorecard has been.
The cuts, of over $30B, exacted on budget 2013, speak of an opposition mind-set that it is simply frustrating, if not, vindictive. For how does one justify complete cuts to proposed plans for what will be the nation’s first Specialty Hospital, and expansion plans for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA)? Couple this to further cuts to the Government Information Agency (GINA), reducing its allocation to a mere one dollar!  As is well known, this agency disseminates information nationally on government’s development programmes, and was not even afforded a defence in Parliament , although promised by the Opposition.
Then there is the current issue of both opposition parties refusing to give support to the critical legislative Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill. Again, for no apparently perceived good reason, both parties have refused their parliamentary support; and they have done so, despite an unprecedented appeal to the House by the president, urging  that partisanship be put aside.
This failure on Guyana’s part to give legislative approval to this most important bill, and the resultant consequences, are well known and needs not be repeated. Except that government  will have to seek an extension from the  Financial Action Task Force,  at its plenary in Nicaragua,   in the quest of having the Bill through the National Assembly at a later date.
No sovereign government that has done so much for its people and  country, particularly as it relates to restoring the latter’s  once battered image to international respectability, ought to be frustrated in this manner by its opposition parties.
But this has been the strategy of the parliamentary opposition parties – to frustrate the national development process. It is all that they have done, thus far, in this 10th Parliament.