When the debates on the country’s largest budget ever continued in the National Assembly on Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn declared that the country’s finances are once again in “safe, reliable and incorruptible” hands with the return of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) Government.
He boasted that every time Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh brings a budget to the House, it has always been “bigger and better”, while calling out Singh’s predecessor, Winston Jordan, for leaving the country’s finances in a catastrophic state.
The Home Affairs Minister said Jordan has earned the “unenviable reputation” of being the only minister in the western hemisphere who has overseen the deliberate dismantling of a vibrant economy within the shortest possible time.
“No earthquake, no flood, no tsunami, no volcanic eruption was required; or even a war was required to bring our country and its finances to the state that we [PPP] met when we return to power…,” Benn related.
According to him, the APNU-AFC failed “to do the right thing” for the economy during its time in office. To this end, he pointed out that it is no surprise that the actions of Jordan are being investigated by the Special Organised Crime Unit.
Minister Benn said good management of Guyana’s revenue is needed now more than ever with the advent of the oil and gas sector. He noted that the $552.9B fiscal plan is invaluable in terms of the data, intervention, and measures it contains.
Beyond the implementation of negative and regressive taxes, Benn recalled, the former APNU-AFC Government closed several sugar estates, and trapped investments in the forest, rice, bauxite, and other minerals sector.
He pointed out that the Coalition did so to the detriment of the economy as well as the social and economic well-being of thousands of Guyanese of every race, ethnicity, and social and economic status.
“The sugar industry in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) was devasted by the APNU-AFC…seven thousand workers went home without a daily bread, and multiply that by four or five families… and we will understand why Region Six has seen the least improvement in terms of security,” Minister Benn added.
Against this background, he said, there is a link between crime and poverty, while adding that it is a sad state of affairs when the APNU+AFC cannot link the growing of marijuana in the region to its dismantling of the sugar industry.
Further, he reminded that the previous Government supported the blockage of the Berbice River to prevent the bauxite ships from coming down. As a result of this, he said, some one thousand workers were sent home without a job.
Considering all of this, Benn made it clear that the Opposition is in no position to lecture the PPP on how to run the country, and speak of how bad the party is on proposing measures to change the situation it found on assuming office.
Benn went on to rebuke the Opposition Parliamentarians for their poor budget presentations, adding that they are continuing to make “exhibits of themselves”. Moreover, he reminded the APNU+AFC of its attempts to rig the 2020 national elections and, most recently, of its efforts to steal the Speaker’s Mace.
Reflecting on the latter, he said, “They did it live, direct, virtually in the face of a national and international audience, to the disgrace of our country.”
He added that the Opposition members have no decorum, and stated that all they come to the National Assembly to do is skin their teeth and catcall.
“…but the reason that they behave like this, Mr. Speaker, is that they are all essentially joined up in the PNCR, and the PNCR has had a history of violence… This is the way they behave; they cannot change, it’s in their DNA,” he posited.
“…violence, insults, vulgarity that is what you represent in the floor of this House for our country,” said Benn to the Opposition members.
In taking the country forward as an oil-producing nation and in unity, Benn said, the PPP would ensure that the APNU-AFC never comes back into power. His statement was, however, met with much heckling from the Opposite side.
The Home Affairs Minister told the House that it was the PPP that pursued the eventual discovery of oil during a time when there was much skepticism, division, and laughter from the PNCR.
“President Janet Jagan, as the Minister of Petroleum, determined and signed the first exploration agreement…the PNCR was busy on Vlissengen Road ‘wukking pun she’ and ramping up illegal protests…”
According to him, this led to political riots, murders and mayhem over all of Guyana, with tragic results which led to less development in the country. But despite all the efforts to the contrary, he noted, oil was discovered in 2015 under the Donald Ramotar PPP Government and was labelled an election gimmick by the APNU-AFC.
“Leave that wreck of a party. You still have time to depart from them and make a good, positive contribution to our country,” Benn said as he urged the young APNU+AFC Parliamentarians to leave the Coalition.
