That our elected officials work in harmony, is all we are asking for
I woke up this morning still in bewilderment at what I witnessed in the Guyana parliament. The parliament is a place where laws and legislation are passed to guide and protect our people. The parliament has the government and opposition, so naturally, debates ensue which is healthy in a democracy. A bill as sensitive as the Natural Resource Fund, where both sides have strong views and feels that their point of view is the right one, was placed in the right domain to be presented and challenged….or so we thought.
We, the man in the street, are paying close attention to what our leaders and elected representatives are going on with. Protest has many facets….peaceful marches, boycotts, rallies, advertisements, social media like Glen Tic-Toking etc., In parliament, years ago, on the radio, and recently on TV, we would witness heckling when views were not accepted. What we saw last night was bewildering. A well thought out premeditated vulgarity played out. Leaving your seats to disrupt the parliament, whilst blowing whistles, and to intimidate does not go down well with most sections of our society. It is obvious that the plan to remove the Speaker’s Mace was premeditated and then to use that as the reason why a bill cannot be passed is ludicrous. Please bear in mind that I am not downplaying the NRF debate and its pros and cons but the issue is the disgraceful behaviour in our parliament.
Guyana is a very polarized society, and this behaviour does not auger well for the future. We all know that it only takes a few votes to swing an election either way, and swing voters are not the “die hards”, they sit on the fence and watch on. While we are infighting, the international community and investors are going to creep in and “eat our dinner”. We, the electorate, want our elected officials to work in harmony for the good of our people. That’s all we are asking for. We are blessed to have wealth from our natural resources in a huge way. Let’s work together to develop our country and stop fighting with each other. Prayers that 2022 will be peaceful and that progress will continue.
Sincerely, Saudia Ferouz