After listening to the contributions of Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) to the 2024 budget debates, Government Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira said it is clear that her counterparts are suffering from intellectual bankruptcy. The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance said it is saddening that the opposition members, who have spoken thus far, have demonstrated that they are incapable of understanding the transformative agenda of the 2024 budget.
She added that the political opposition seems incapable of proper analysis and has resorted to bland sound bites such as “the budget is for friends, families, favourites and flatterers of the PPP; the budget is for the elite; and the budget does nothing for the ordinary man”.
“My gosh, can’t you be more imaginative than this?” the veteran politician said with apparent disgust.
Teixeira also expressed pity that the opposition is incapable of comprehending government’s investments across many industries such as the energy sector which includes an $80B allocation for the gas-to-energy project.
“…Bringing down the price of electricity is important,” she simplified for the opposition, adding, “Because the high cost is what has held back the manufacturing sector. It has held back many of the sectors of Guyana…”
With respect to infrastructure, Teixeira explained to her opposition counterparts that investments in this sector would create more jobs, which means more money for Guyanese. She said these investments also support the growing demands of the country. “I have to explain because I’ve heard in this house in the last three days: Why are you building this physical infrastructure? Why are you spending so much on this? But you don’t get the big picture. You just don’t listen,” said the parliamentarian.
The people of this country judge a government by its track record, and the PPP/C’s is stellar, said Teixeira. In this regard, she said the solar panel project which started in 2012, gave approximately 13,000 households solar panels. Sadly, during the period 2015 to 2020, Minister Teixeira said this project was abandoned. Teixeira said the APNU+AFC regime proved by this alone that it is visionless and uncaring; reminding that it was the same party that instituted over 200 harsh taxes.
In contrast to the opposition, Teixeira said the PPP/C embodies a philosophy of progression; of teaching a man how to fish, hence there have been major investments in educational initiatives such as the GOAL Scholarship Programme.
The Chief Whip said that the 2024 builds upon the golden legacy the PPP is crafting for the nation and therefore registered her unequivocal support of it.
