Talk of ethnic discrimination is all that remains in the Opposition Coalition’s arsenal. The party’s recourse to the “Ethnic Boogeyman” only highlights the sad reality that the Colation has no sensible response to the comprehensive agenda being implemented by the Irfaan Ali-led administration. At least, this is according to Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh.
During a televised programme with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Saturday, Dr Singh rapped Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton for his “baseless” discrimination talks. He said if one should look at almost everything the administration has achieved and is pursuing, they will observe a systematic approach designed for the growth of Guyanese.
The minister pointed to a number of social support programmes, especially the COVID-19 cash grant relief initiative which benefitted every household in the ten administrative regions.
Minister Singh noted that the swift move to undertake such a massive outreach stemmed from the PPP/C observing several households in financial distress during the devastating period.
“Where is the discrimination here?” the minister asked, as he reeled out a host of other measures, which he said, were implemented by the previous government to cause destruction to Guyanese families.
“If you look at for example introducing VAT on electricity, water, education, medical and school supplies, construction materials and heavy-duty equipment, taking away the cash grants from parents… the interventions by the APNU+AFC harmed every single Guyanese family,” he stated.
The restoration of the ‘Because We Care’ initiative alone has injected almost $6 billion into the pockets of parents/guardians of approximately 194,000 school children.
“Irrespective of where you live, irrespective of where your ancestors came from, irrespective of which area you subscribe to… it’s distributed to parents of all Guyanese children.”
Further, Minister Singh said every household that pays an electricity or water bill now enjoys a VAT-free process compared to prior August 2, 2020.
Additionally, the Housing Ministry’s programme was stagnant, with little to no applications being processed for citizens to own their own homes, the minister asserted.
“We came into office, we immediately revamped and strengthened the Housing Ministry and started an aggressive programme to distribute house lots… since we are in office, we have probably distributed more than 10, 000 house lots.”
Dr Singh said the APNU+AFC political group continues to demonstrate its “intellectual bankruptcy,” incompetence and inability to formulate policies for Guyana.
He reiterated that during the coalition’s reign, Guyanese witnessed no diversification nor growth in the economy.
“Instead, it appeared that the strategy was simply to sit [and] wait for the oil to come,” the minister contended.
To this end, he maintained that the opposition can in no way provide credible criticism of the PPP/C’s inclusive policies as well as an alternative policy position on any issue.
Aubrey Norton and others in the PNC are so racist that they see racism in everything, even the colour black.
Those who holler racism the loudest and most frequently are themselves the most racist.