Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall is refuting the contention that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government is only helping the Indo-Guyanese population. During his live Facebook programme, “Issues in the News,” aired last evening, the AG noted that the initiatives in the 2021 Budget were formulated and brought into effect to aid all Guyanese, regardless of colour, class or creed.
He referred to comments made by an opposition politician, Aubrey Norton, about Afro-Guyanese being side-lined in several government programmes including the issuance of the $25,000 COVID-19 relief cash grant.
The Attorney General said that most opposition members are sick. “This is the sickness of these people; every time they open their mouths, their minds are a cesspool of hate and discord, so every time they open their mouths, all they can speak about is division and discord among our races,” he said.
Nandlall said that when the government implemented relief measures in the budget, the intention was to alleviate the tax burden that was placed on all Guyanese, not just the Indo-population.
“We presented a budget, we stood in the Parliament and explained every programme…We removed VAT (Value Added Tax) on electricity and removed VAT on water, and removed VAT on medical supplies, and removed VAT from Educational items, and removed VAT from locally manufactured construction materials. How is that to only benefit Indo-Guyanese?”
Nandlall said that while measures implemented by the government are enjoyed by all Guyanese, it is the public servants who stand to benefit the most. He noted that the Public Service is predominantly occupied by Afro-Guyanese, and therefore, it is “baseless and damaging” to claim that the government is only looking out for the Indo-Guyanese population.
Nandlall stressed that about 75 to 80% of public servants are non-Indo-Guyanese and this has been the status quo since Independence.
He questioned, “Where is the discrimination that they speak of?”
Nandlall said that the opposition is simply distracting from the real issues.
“So, you have every day to confront this baseless, reckless and damaging narrative that they are creating, but we can’t afford to spend time and energy behind that. I believe that is what they want; so that we have to answer them every day, and that detracts us from the task of developing the country and moving the lives of our people forward,” he said.
