What does this headline even mean?
What does the Opposition Leader mean when he says he wasn’t consulted?
Is he a budget expert, in the budget consultancy business?
Look.
Norton’s act…arrogance lathered with ignorance… is not only an ongoing detriment to the two party system that the nation’s democracy sits on but it’s a public and constant erosion of the national role his elected position, Leader of the Opposition, is reduced to, under his tenure.
Somebody needs to sit this man down and detail what his position demands – the ‘ignorance’ to which we refer. It’s time for his social media shrines to remove his statuettes and send him off to work…that of being 50 % of governance.
And if he’s not prepared to do it then those designated for that exigency must do what is required.
Being involved in EVERYTHING that affects the nation is the remit of the Opposition Leader, whose job, when done from the job site…Parliament…is to be aware of every national law and policy endeavor of the ruling arm of government to check– by ensuring it is of benefit to the nation and balance -by contributing to budgetary proposals to secure adequate and appropriate financing for all programs of social benefit in every region.
It’s not like the budget, under this Party’s Leadership, has been a social tide that lifts all boats. And The Opposition knows it. They griped and groaned about it last year from outside of the room- off the table…jawing for personality points.
The Opposition Leader, whose job is to ensure that the national Treasury benefits the country’s residents, should have already recalibrated his methods of engaging the ruling arm of government, to satisfy his constitutional obligation to the 50% of governance.
Insistence on being an Opposer and not an Opposition Leader is an act for personal aggrandizement at the expense of failed goods and services to the nation.
Being populist could work, if YOU work in the people’s house, which is avoided more than attended by this team.
Posturing with undue overconfidence is the kind of behavior that has left a specific demographic grovelling at the feet of their oppressors because an absent Opposition at the governing table leaves a dictatorship in the form of one Party rule … and in this instance, with every weapon to beat down and beat back its historic nemesis.
Racism in Guyana runs deep and appears more often than not when Jagdeo’s Party is at the helm.
We know this from the copious documentation of the international community, currently supporting Jagdeo’s open violation of the democracy they are giving his Party aid, in coin and kind, to exercise. They document his failures but keep him in place.
Social media footage of Jagdeo telling his oversized Black Bishop to shut up, encapsulates, not only how he feels about the Black population but his over lording of his Party, that prefers power to national development.
We’ll take the opportunity to promote our simple but enduring philosophy ~~
Guyana is the home of Guyanese and it’s our moral duty to keep it a home in every sense of the word.
Lowering the temperature- often thrown out by foreigners- is the political currency they use to buy our distraction and their time to implement their regional agenda- through an agent their records have assessed as being core-less enough to “work with them”.
They’ve, typically, discounted the racial thinking that one Party is losing the country…now being remedied by importing labor of the race/nationality the the leading Party prefers. Words alone will not suffice, we concede, but we stay planted in our encouragement for us all to make the effort to be more for country than party; for than against each other- and it starts with leaders who are expected to set the national tone of respect, embrace and goodwill ~~
The posturing for popularity is accelerated by the presence of social media which gives velocity to animosities, rather than to common decency and discussions on how and why our differing politics can work for the common good.
Being constantly watchful and not bending to the cheap thrills of actions that tear down rather than build up will form the beginnings of better relations for a better Guyana.
The old formula of Perpetual Politicking is where the Opposition seems comfortable – and don’t expect us to validate this unproductivity with equivalencies to the other Party.
Instead, we’ll ask why, with all of the legal minds in the Opposition, hasn’t there been more guidance to the flailing Opposition about staying its course, as a constitutional political entity, in its service to 50% of governance. And with the volume of resident technocratic help that the Opposition can be steered by…why is this arm of Government failing so spectacularly?
It’s budget time and we need more than an act…a person who seems to think deflecting inadequacies is a formula for his abundant failure. This performance might be good for Party rallies where people bond by being happy and hateful over the same political incidents. It’s a solidarity of shared animosities.
But life ain’t that. People need the fundamentals of living, like jobs, food, opportunities to do better; especially in an economy on an upward trajectory.
We can personally attest to being told by the Opposition “You must engage the average Guyanese to know their views” a stock phrase we filed under rhetorical stuff … which has failed since they took office. It might be a good retort if the ‘average Guyanese’ were benefitting from the performance politics and were clamoring for more in a consensus of statement.
They haven’t. They won’t. So the Opposition is digging in to the only thing it knows, all that it knows – the divisive nature of populism without the popularity.
We’re literally on Budget Eve and the Opposition Leader serves up some stupid politics made dangerous by his rancid ego.
The Guyanese looking to this arm of government for deserved relief will be subjected to the fiscal fantasies of the ruling Party and its diabolical economist emeritus- whose only idea of an ideal economy is shackling parts of the country he leads to the poverty markers that deem the country amongst the poorest in the hemisphere.
The social media platforms dedicated to highlighting the cruelty of the ruling arm of government must be even more dedicated to highlighting why it is so successful in meting out its cruelty….which lies in the fact that the Opposition has never assumed its role as Leader of the constitutional entity known as the Opposition or shown any capacity to function in it.
As we said before, it’s time for him to be renounced as the maverick he was promoted as.
Continuing to support excessive failures directly contribute to the ongoing social blight that plagues too many, especially a specific group of people in whom the ruling arm of Government, apparently, remains committed to disinvest in every way that they could.
I am very disappointed in this article.
Why attack the leader of the opposition in an article that states the obvious. Government is not doing anything for the impoverished portions of society. Why not attack the government? The article also states that this government is dictatorial. But attacks the leader of the opposition.
Is the leader of the opposition responsible for the behavior of the Government.
Thanks for reading. Your disappointment has been noted.
Point of correction. This is not an attack. This is a fact.
And because the Opposition Leader has proven to be a failure, we have the government leading from the depths of racism by deliberately stifling opportunities for its perceived enemy… the Black Community.
Norton has a constitutional obligation to work in the position to which he was elected.
He has not. Imagine if he had stayed at the table to negotiate a path around the alleged Emminent Domain. People would have been on their lots.
We have no Party affinity and no allegiance to Norton. We are Guyanese and know that our country needs an Opposition that is capable of checking and balancing.
Sadly, Norton has never transitioned from Party Leader, so he is a failed Opposion Leader.
His failure to lead has given us the virtual one Party State that Guyan has become under his tenure.
Would love you to come back when the budget is passed and tell us what contribution NORTON has made to this budget that should be of benefit to every resident Guyanese in every region…irrespective of race and Party…by him as 50% of national governance.
The problem, as I see it, is not Norton or any other opposition leader but rather the same constitution of which you so proudly reference.
The last time any opposition made a difference in Parliament was during the 2011-2015 session when they had a combined majority.
Any budget / Bill presented under the current constitution will pass as presented.
It takes a simple majority vote to pass.
Partisan politics in Guyana ensures safe passage.
Thanks for your response.
The Constitution was there when the Opposition Leader accepted the Position…and has been there for the past 4 iterations of Opposition.
So, blaming the Constituion at this point is just counterproductive…especially since the current Leader touts his bona fides on Guyana’ Politics.
A bad workman blames his tools…is a proverb we were taught in the school benches f Guyana.
And I’ll say that with all of the Lawyers in the Coalition the Constitution should not be a legal hurdle at at all.
If, per you, the last successful Opposition session was 2011-2015 … then that’s a reference point the current dude should have used….and I say so with every cynicism because that was really the lower end of Opposition Politicking because nothing was gained for the nation… budget wise or in political standing.
So I suspect youre referring to the prorogation which was politcal capital squandered by the team that had been in the Opposition for 23 years and ascended to leadership clueless and without a plan.
The Opposition in all of its parts is unprepared administratively and politcally for the highest office.
And I say this as a Guyanese who is country first.
Getting back to the topic, though.
Norton never assumed the position of negotiator, accepting that he has absolutely no chance of contributing to his portion of governance without showing the humility that is a prerequsite for leadership.
Consequently the budget has been created by one Party’s agenda because the Oppsition never showed up for its duty.
That’s the hard and provable fact.
And by the way, majority rule has been the foundation of Guyana government. Thats why there’s a Ruling arm and an Opposition.
THAT’S WHY THE OPPOSITION ADOPTS A POSTURE OF HUMILITY TO NEGOTIATE ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPEL WHO DEPEND ON THIS ARM OF GOVERNMENT.
And the quicker Guyanese get to understanding what the absence of an Opposition means to national politics and stop defending Norton because he’s Black, they’ll get to the point of telling him he has to work once he’s office and not engage in performative politics to mask his inadequacies.
The fact that he thought he should be consulted and not have contributed says everything about his approach to this job on which the wellbeing of so many rides on his performance.
In politcal office he’s a servant to the people.