While the Coalition preaches the importance of Democracy and Social Cohesion, its actions during the post-election period flies in the face of those ideologies, says Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson Jr.
The Member of Parliament, during today’s session of the budget debates, said that the coalition should be “the last to talk about democracy”; noting the numerous “attempts made by the APNU+AFC to rig the elections” It is evident that the former regime had no intention of preserving fairness in Guyana.
He said that during the post-election period, Guyana witnessed “attacks” to its Constitution, and the David Granger-led administration’s holding the nation hostage for five months.
Ramson Jr. said that it is this flagrant disregard for democracy that exposed Guyana to isolation from the international community. He added that it was the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) – his government – that restored democracy to Guyana when it assumed office back in August.
On the issue of Social Cohesion, the attorney-at-law said that the Coalition government created this notion as a façade, as million of dollars were not going towards ensuring the promotion of unity in Guyana, but the maximization of wealth for a selected few.
He said that when the Ministry of Social Cohesion was introduced in 2015, it received no funds for two years. When it finally received a budgetary allocation of $88M back in 2017, $58M alone was spent on the functioning of the ministry: paying salaries, settling overhead costs.
“No money was spent on social cohesion,” the MP told the House.
Further to that, Ramson Jr. said that he made inquires to ascertain a Social Cohesion plan, but nothing of the sort has been found to date.
