Singh in heated confrontations with opposition hecklers
-says APNU+AFC persecuted him
“We don’t change our tune every time we speak, unlike the Leader of the Opposition”.
These were the words of Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh as he digressed to answer heckles from the opposition during his presentation of the 2024 Budget yesterday.
On one such occasion, as he made note of the significant rise in the number of visitors to Guyana last year, comments were made that the majority of them were Guyanese. To this, Singh noted that they are indeed Guyanese who are returning, having previously left the country during 2015 to 2020 when the Granger administration took over governance.
Opposition MPs further heckled Singh that he was one among those who left the country.
This sparked visible anger in the Finance Minister, as he belted out, “I did go, and I went on self-imposed political exile because of political prosecution by the APNU+AFC!” Singh had faced a charge of misconduct in public office in 2018. The charge was withdrawn in December 202 after the PPP/C took office.
Singh then moved on to lash out at MP and AFC member Sherod Duncan’s state of employment, noting: “I can’t help it if I’m employable anywhere in the world. I, sir, when my mother sent me to school, I went to school. You [Duncan] are not even employable in Chronicle!”
The Minister then alluded to the fact that Duncan was fired by Geeta Chandan, an APNU MP.
“Let the record reflect that Geeta Chandan fired him at the Chronicle… and [he] has the audacity to come here to heckle me?”
As the heckling continued, Singh proceeded to ask Duncan whether or not he had repaid the Chronicle’s monies.
When he got to the rehabilitation of the Linden/Soesdyke Highway ($10B has been allocated), pandemonium again broke out as the Finance Minister diverted to respond to a question posed by Leader of the Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton on whether or not the highway would be two lanes. In response to the comment made, Singh posited to Norton, “How many lanes were built by APNU+AFC for the people of Linden between 2015 and 2020? How many lanes did the APNU+AFC build, for 5 years, claiming to love the people of Linden? How many lanes of a bridge did they build by Wismar? How many lanes?”
To his own question, Singh responded that not even half a lane or a bicycle bridge was built by the previous administration. He also noted that the Leader of the Opposition claims to love the people of Linden but not even a bicycle bridge was constructed at Wismar.
Singh also lashed out by contending that the Leader of the Opposition didn’t