Georgetown- He is the only Parliamentarian thus far, who reminded the House that the ultimate goal was to build Guyana, Dr. Clive Thomas in his his first speech to the National Assembly yesterday made it clear that politics in Guyana has reached a point where parties appear to merely “oppose for opposition’s sake” and blatantly disregard what serves as the best interest of the country and its citizenry.
He said APNU/AFC Opposition blocked key developmental projects like Amaila Falls and the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill, pointing out to the House that those parties only opposed for opposition’s sake.
“It is perhaps for those members who were in this side who are now on that side to reflect and determine if it was in good conscience that they served Guyana, when they blocked and refused to support any number of important legislations from the then minority Government.
“Since before I was born and all through my life growing up, I was told that Guyana needs cheap, clean energy if we are going to take advantage of our natural resources for our development. When we heard that we had great potential for hydropower, how much was done to actualise these words?” he challenged.
Dr Jagan explained that the previous Government had everything in place for the execution of this project, but it was blocked by the then APNU/AFC majority opposition, resulting in time, money and energy being wasted.
“We had a shortened economy. The PNC had beaten the population into pessimism and pushed into immigration… By the time, they were done we were a highly-indebted, low-income country with inflation of over 100 per cent,” Dr Jagan said, noting that PPP/C basically inherited a socioeconomic mess – a country where most parts were without water, electricity, with no freedom and no democracy.
But then following the “herculean” efforts by the PPP/C Government over the last 23 years, Guyana began to flourish once again and was in far better state than it was during the PNC rule.
Dr Jagan noted that Guyana now has an education system that is once again considered one of the best in the Caribbean: more children are graduating from primary schools, more graduating with high grades in their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Exams; a stabilised exchange rate; rice production soaring at 600,000 tonnes a year; wider distribution of electricity and water; freedom and democracy.
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