Parliament showdown, protests today

The People’s National Congress Reform today (May 7) dispatched a letter to the Prime Minister rejecting the Motion on the rising cost of living which the Government proposes to present to the National Assembly tomorrow, Thursday May 8. The PNCR rejects both its content and the procedures being adopted for its tabling and debate.

This belated Motion before the National Assembly was only circulated to Parliamentarians last Friday after a march against the rising cost of living was announced. It is significant that, Parliament was fixed for the same day of the march and no effort was made by the Government to discuss what proposals (if any) were being made by the Government to ease Guyanese from the stress of the rising cost of living.

The Motion is being presented to the Parliament in the absence of any comprehensive plan by the Government and clearly as a propaganda exercise to deceive the people of Guyana that the Government is concerned about their plight.

Ironically, the Motion is intended to congratulate the Government on its measures, although these measures are not known and to ‘note’ the Government programme which has not yet been presented to the people of Guyana.

The PNCR made it clear in its letter that we “will not be part of any deception of the Guyanese public into believing that the Government would take seriously, on board, any constructive suggestions that would be made by the Parliamentary Opposition Parties during the Debate, since, our experience has been that our suggestions have been consistently dismissed with contempt by the Government.”.

The most recent example was the total rejection of ideas by the Opposition Parties for the support of the Stakeholders Motion. The PNCR Members of Parliament will, therefore, not be diverted from its pre-planned programme and will be participating in a march tomorrow on the rising cost of living. We urge all Guyanese to join do likewise.