This country needs a functional opposition
I refer to the article titled, “Budget for Office of the Leader of the Opposition slashed significantly” (KN May 8). My first reaction was that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. That is, until disparaging thoughts departed swiftly, and sanity returned. This country needs an opposition; and any democracy-fledgling, advanced, or make believe-requires one that is functional and pulling its weight, despite the odds, and internal limitations. But the leaders of the PPP have proven themselves to be no slouches in the underhand department. It is the kind of reverse democracy that they know, what their sorry minds conjure from the indoctrinations of their earliest formative years. PPP leaders are very familiar with that old practice of big government in sophisticated societies. When it is desired to knock something down several notches, defund it. Of course, political leaders are nothing if not the essence of pious hypocrisies: priorities, budget balancing, oversight, no knowledge, never any nefarious objectives. But as my fellow Americans, the still thinking and critical ones, would say: Go tell that to the Marines! In plain Guyanese that translates to “what kind of fool do you think I am?” And if that sounds like Joseph Lee Pope and the Tams, it is. But here it is, the budget for the Office of the Leader of the Opposition crushed.
It is more than floored. Because when that office (regardless of the pluses or minuses of the holder and the group itself) is so severely drained of financial oxygen, then it might as well be in India lining up outside of a crowded hospital in the hope of getting some precious, lifesaving air. It just can’t breathe; and when it cannot even draw breath, then it is as good as paralyzed. It is so grievously wounded that all it can do is hobble along, while hoping for a handout from sympathetic passersby. I think that this is a well-conceived plan by PPP leaders that is now put into action. Guyana is a one-party state, in everything but name, which is a one man show, and the PPP just went ahead and made it official.
Let them moan and groan. What else are they capable of doing? That is the arrogance of the thinking fostered by American backings, which is reminiscent of the Shah of Iran, until he fell. And while I am it, I remind Guyanese (mentally energetic ones) of one LFS Burnham, who was once the darling of the imperialist juggernaut of the North (CB Jagan), until he fell afoul of them and became a pariah.