Mr. Speaker, Honourable members of this noble house I thank you all for the warm welcome you have bestowed upon us new members of the house.
As I stand here today to make my presentation on the 2012 national budget, I reflect on of a sitting of this national assembly just a few weeks ago when a number of women picketed just across from where we are, and I am reminded that whatever we do in this assembly must reflect the wishes and needs of, those women, women in general and the masses of this country.
Our deliberations therefore and what we agree to in this assembly must not only be what we determine is best for the people of this country but must also consider what the people of this country are calling for.
Mr. Speaker, we will not deny that there have been some improvements in Guyana. To do so would make us appear as extreme oppositionists. This is not what I or we in the AFC are about. Rather, we see ourselves as the conscience of the nation and the voice of reason in this honourable house.
Therefore Mr. Speaker, where there are good ideas and plans in the budget, the AFC will support those because we do not believe that any one party has the monopoly on good ideas. And where we feel this budget has failed we will raise our concerns expecting that as parties committed to Guyana and doing what is best for all her citizens we will find the maturity to compromise.
It cannot be disputed that the challenges facing our communities and social services have reached alarming proportions. Domestic violence and child abuse are now daily occurrences and regrettably many in our population are slowly becoming numb to this.
In the 2012 estimates, in the details of subsidies and contributions to local organisations, we see a list of NGO’s set to receive allocations. Several of these organization provide undisputed support to public service agencies and their positive contributions go undisputed. Take Help and Shelter whose name is mentioned in every discussion on support services for victims of domestic violence who receives only10 million in this year’s budget but the government’s propaganda machinery – the Guyana Information Agency receives 111 plus million dollars. The question this forces us to ask is ….is the daily churning out of government propaganda a better use of scarce financial resources than an agency dealing head on, every day with an unacceptable epidemic that eliminates one of this nation’s most precious resources…our women.
Or for example the meager $200,000 dollars also listed in the estimates for the David Rose School – a school I am personally acquainted with as far back as the nineteen seventies when one of my sisters who is deaf attended the school. Little has improved over the years and originally a school for the deaf, today the David Rose school it is a melting pot for children with various disabilities fighting for a chance to learn, but in an environment of grossly inadequate resources which guarantee they will never reach their true potential. Is this an acceptable allocation for one of few educational facilities dedicated to training and educating persons with disabilities within our communities.
In the estimates we also observe an increase in travel for conferences and official visits, “the globetrotters” from over 263 million in 2010 to 270 million in 2011 and now we are being asked to approve 285 million in 2012. If that is not bad enough the estimates highlights a category “other transport, travel and postage” which moved from 564 million to over 941 million in a twelve month period.
Mr. Speaker, the winds of change blew over this parliament a few short months ago and they must continue. I say again, this budget must reflect want the people of Guyana say they need. We represent them and I say $200,000 for the David Rose School for children with disabilities and 285 million for overseas conferences and trips cannot be considered just. It must change. Behind every child with a disability is a mother fighting hard to understand and cope with the additional challenges. Is this the best we can do, is this the best support Guyana can offer these families.
Guyanese from all walks of life have said they need more financial support to survive, to grow their families…they have said in no uncertain terms that VAT must be reduced, pensions increase to levels that persons who have served this country will have a little more than bread and water to live on. This is not a gift but a right they have earned. For many of them we have chased their children away as they search for better opportunities and now they grow old alone in Guyana. We must do better by them.
But examine this more carefully and we see that most of these NGOs will receive in 2012 less than what one man will receive in pension and benefits in one month. Where is the level of care in this? One man getting about three million a month and an NGO that provides for hundreds gets less than one million for the whole year. It is time for the government to stop giving lip service to empowering women and families, and back up their big talks with real action.
Let me give an example so there is no doubt as to the AFC thinking – take two-thirds of the total allocations for former presidents and give it to NGOs taking care of our pensioners, abused women and children. This will not affect macro-economic programmes.
I have heard that some in the government don’t believe that the government has an obligation to give a pension. Let me make it clear – the AFC sees it not only as an obligation but as a moral and religious duty to take care of our elderly, our widows, our orphans and all those less fortunate in our society.
As I said before, it is not for us to determine what is best for the people, but we must listen to and fulfill the wishes of the people. We are servants of the people.
Mr. Speaker, article 146 (1) of the Constitution of the Cooperative republic of Guyana states and I quote “ Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions without interference, freedom to receive ideas and information without interference and freedom from interference with his correspondence”.
With this firmly in our minds I want to examine the role of public service broadcasting. Please note that as a recipient of state funds, funding from the national treasury, the National Communications Network (NCN) must be examined within the context of a public service broadcaster.
Given these considerations that I have very carefully outlined, it is clear that the National Communications Networks does not fulfill the mandate of a public service or national broadcaster and therefore should not be receiving together with GINA, a total of more than 241 million dollars as outlined in the estimates. I mentioned before the Propaganda machinery GINA received $111,496 million last year and has been allocated an increase to $130,398 million in this year’s estimates. Surely Mr. Speaker this expensive propaganda cannot be considered as critical to the development of a better Guyana. In addition to GINA, NCN in the estimates who received 70 million last year has now been allocated $81 Million. This is a waste on partisan propaganda.
It is a well known fact that NCN has deliberately refused access to this nationally owned station to several large sections of the population in direct contravention to the provisions clearly outlined in our constitution. Political parties such as the AFC, the PNC and most recently A.P.N.U have been consistently excluded not even allowed a right to reply…a foundation of any democracy.
Mr. Speaker, the AFC is not prepared to go to another election where the NCN dictates that the opposition will only get 5 minutes air time, but gives the PPP blanket coverage with equipment that was paid for by all Guyanese including the taxes from the majority of Guyanese that voted for the political opposition in this House.
The monopoly that NCN exerts in Linden across the Television and radio airwaves continues unabated and is breach of a decision of Guyana’s courts which instructed that the situation in Linden was a breach of the constitutional rights of Lindeners. . The failure to issue licenses in a fair and objective manner, the refusal to allow existing TV stations to expand their signal, the recent subjective allocation of a few radio licenses to members of the PPP’s family and friends network, is nothing short of a dictatorship which the PPP is so prone to crying down. NCN fails to remember that the spectrum belongs to no one and as occurs in the smallest Caribbean island and the largest developed country but not in Guyana – must be managed in a non partisan manner, educating, informing and entertaining and providing ideas and exchanges from all walks of life in the public’s interest!
I am happy to share with this honourable house that I have in my possession a letter from the CEO of NCN who boldly points out in a letter to the AFC dated March 19, 2012, that NCN is registered as a company incorporated under the company’s act 29 of 1991 and receives over 90% of its income from advertising. This is a wonderful feat for NCN and given this information it is clear that NCN and the Guyana Information Agency does not need over 240 million dollars from the limited national coffers. It is afterall a successful company that clearly can compete effectively with the private sector, although this is not allowed in several countries. Surely this honourable house cannot authorize the use of hard earned Taxpayers money in such a manner. The fact that NCN has made no attempt to change its modus operandi over the years and that fact that the best of international election and media monitoring experts have noted this unacceptable situation, election after election and yet unfortunately nothing has change it is now clear that only this house can and must make that change. Let the agencies that NCN and GINA serve fund their activities if they refuse to serve the interest of all in this nation.
Mr. Speaker, the people are tired of the NCN diet and more so the people of Linden. Now to add to their insult, this government is saying it cannot subsidise electricity costs for Linden. Mr. Speaker, I am suggesting that we take the $81 million dollars budgeted for NCN and put it towards subsidizing electricity for Linden. I am showing the government how taxpayers money can be better utilized in the best interest of the people of Guyana. If the people can’t afford to pay for electricity they can’t watch NCN anyhow. Again, we not proposing any new money, just better use of existing funds. Or use the money set aside for NCN and GINA and open a meat processing plant at Linden where young people can get jobs and farmers at Kwakwani will be encouraged to get back into cattle farming knowing that there is a market available.
Mr. Speaker as an impatient and somewhat frustrated new comer to this noble house, I have grown up hearing about my dear Country’s great potential and hope that it will be realized in my lifetime! But what find most offensive is the constant looking backwards to a time long gone which has plagued much of the presentations on the opposite side of the house.. No young Guyanese wants to drown in stories of the past but they want to see a vision of the future, one that will serve them, excite them and provide them with an opportunity to prosper right here at home.
Every wasted moment looking back keeps us from moving forward. So with this in mind I would like to address a few inaccuracies from the honourable Minister Irfaan Ali who fails to acknowledge that Stabroek News was born under the Hoyte administration and not under the PPP! And it was under the same Hoyte administration that the Mirror and the Catholic Standard got approval to start importing newsprint to carry on their trade, much of which was to criticize the government of the day , which was their democratic right!
Interestingly it was under the same government that our most recent former President got a job at the State Planning Secretariat. Do you think anyone from the AFC or the APNU could get such a job today!
Unfortunately despite all the promises the most honourable former President Dr. Jagan made to his people in 1992, to end squander-mania, to bring back lean and clean government and to end wastage and financial abuse in Government, this has not stopped.
Mr. Speaker, in 2008, 2009, 2010, the budget included some $200 million in total in those three years to purchase and install a new transmitter and purchase production equipment for various locations for NCN.
But most importantly a large percentage of those funds were used to move the NCN transmitters from Sparandaam to West Demerara to make way for Pradoville II and this nation continues to tell its people that there is no money in the PPP budget to pay pensioner to live at least at the poverty level.
Mr. Speaker, the AFC promises to continue to work to make the Freedom of Information and Broadcasting Law more effective so that people in Region 10 can have alternatives to NCN on their TV spectrum, that existing TV stations will be allowed to expand their reach and to ensure that Guyana will no longer be the only Caribbean Country in which there is only one government owned radio station in 2012! when the average in other small islands is as much as 30!
Mr. Speaker, the AFC will continue to work during the life of this 10th Parliament to ensure that the Guyanese people have a wider choice, not next year but now
TOURISM
Mr. Speaker, we agree with the Hon. Minister that tourism must become a significant contributor to national output and in the process create new jobs, new income and wealth for more people. As an investor in this sector I believe in the potential Tourism offers to turn our economy around and take this opportunity to applaud those who have invested their everything and worked had to build a fine product, with limited gains and slow financial returns.
But what is in the 2012 budget for the tourism industry? A Marriot Hotel? Mr. Speaker, in 2007 when Guyana played proud host to a series of World Cup Cricket matches we added 22 small hotel to our inventory with an additional 771 rooms. It was a necessary investment and we have no regrets. What we do find unacceptable is that construction of the Marriot funded by us appears to be the primary focus in moving this country’s tourism product forward. In Guyana, like Barbados when it started to develop its own tourism industry, it is the smaller hotels that are the backbone of the industry. Local entrepuneurs committed to keeping the money at home, working hard to expand, not companies that will pack up and go just to follow the almighty dollar as several multinational corporations do. No these locals are here for the long haul because this is home and yet the system denies hotels with less than 15 rooms the opportunity to qualify for several duty free concessions offered to larger establishments. So how do we grow and expand. Several of these properties face low occupancy rates averaging, if we are honest with ourselves 30 %, and a few have closed and others sold. Private sector Occupancy rates for hotels with more than 100 rooms showed levels of 74% in 2009, and reductions to 49% in 2011 and an increase in 2011 to 68%.
Mr. Speaker, this budget must include allocations that will build the industry and that means international destination marketing that will bring more visitors to Guyana and improve occupancy levels. We do not need another hotel , if Marriot wants a hotel in Guyana, let them come and build it, with their own money, we don’t have a problem with that. But Marriot and Sandals’ and all the big hotel chains have done the feasibility on Guyana and they know that currently there are not enough tourists to fill the hotels. Right now existing hotels are struggling to break even.
Taxpayers money should not to be used to build hotels. Let us take the money they want to put into the Marriot Hotel and use it to improve our standards and to pay for an effective international marketing campaign, so when the world switches on to CNN they can glimpse the beauty of a paradise they have never heard of before…Guyana. Or let us build a juice or canning factory at New Amsterdam so that the young people in that area can get jobs and the farmers in Canje and on the Corentyne can have a market for their produce and Guyana can earn foreign exchange by exporting the produce. This is not rocket science Mr. Speaker, is just a genuine desire to improve the standard of living of all Guyanese and not seeking to line personal pockets.
Mr. Speaker, the acting Minister of Tourism mentioned in his presentation hosting another Visit Guyana Year. What he does not realize is that in 1996 – Visit Guyana Year visitor arrivals as released by the Guyana Tourism Authority stated that 91, 972 visitors arrived and despite all the talk and promotion is was one of the lowest rates over the last 12 years, as arrivals in fact declined after that year until a moderate increase in 2000 which was followed by another decline until 2004. In realty Mr. Speaker visitor arrivals, the foundation of any tourism industry must improve to create a viable industry.
The AFC would like to propose the following policy measure in this budget to accelerate the process of making tourism into a significant contributor:
1. A programme to empower, build capacity and train the staff at the Guyana Tourism Authority and the requisite funds to fulfill its mandate.
2. An international marketing plan and supporting budget to market Guyana internationally as a ecotourism destination.
3. A programme to develop further neiche markets such as birding, yatching, adventure travel
4. A public relations programme to address the negative publicity, poor image and negative perceptions may persons hold of Guyana to name just a few.
Mr. Speaker, this year should not close without an updated national tourism strategy focused on creating jobs. We must market ourselves more and make it easier and more attractive for overseas tourists to want to come visit Guyana.
Mr. Speaker before I go I would like to mention the all important electricity sector and to raise my concerns that this honourable house is being asked to write a cheque to GPL for six billion dollars although the company has failed to reduce line losses over the last 15 years which currently stands at 33%. When I hear this I can help but think of the hard working citizens at number 30 village who in 2012 have still never had electricity supplied to their homes and who are being asked to come up with 2 million dollars to get electricity to their village.
This government must be judge not only by the roads, and fancy buildings they erect, but by the way we look after the most vunerable in our society, but how many street children we take off the roads, by the number of homeless we can put in more appropriate accommodation other than the cold pavement of la Penitence market and the ever growing number of little old men and women shriveled with age and a time gone by and trying hard to catch a hand and forced to beg.
Mr. Speaker, I indicated before, we in the AFC did not come to this house to oppose the PPP Government for the sake of opposing. We want to accelerate growth in new wealth for more of our people.
We are prepared to work with anyone if they are serious about an agenda to create a just and secure Guyana. But that process must engage more people and the dividends of success must be shared by all, especially the women and youths of Guyana.
Right now, this budget does not offer prosperity to the majority and I hope the valid suggestions from this house will be considered with the maturity and spirit of compromise they all deserve.
At minimum, the 2012 budget should have offered:
1. A wage increase of at least 10% to the workers of Guyana;
2. A pension increase to at least $10,000;
3. Greater financial support to the youths and mothers of Guyana;
4. A focused attempt at creating more new jobs.
It is not too late . I thank you
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