Speeches in the National Assembly

April 12, 2012
Mr. Jaffarally:  I feel honoured and very humbled to be given an opportunity to represent the people of Berbice, Region 6, in this noble House.  I want to thank the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic for giving me this opportunity to be one of the two Members of Parliament  representing Berbice, the other being my colleague, Hon. Minister Mr. Robert Persaud, a Berbician  as myself. I want to thank the Hon. Member Ms.  Gail Teixiera, our party’s Chief Whip, for the guidance and information she has been providing to me to enable me to discharge my responsibility.
I rise to join with my colleagues and the people of Region 6 to lend support and congratulate the Hon. Minister of Finance and his technical team for the 2012 national budget as presented by him. This budget shows our Government’s concern for our people’s welfare and interest.  This budget has been crafted against the background of challenges existing in the global and domestic theatres. It seeks growth within the stable macroeconomic environment and will see the nation attaining greater heights, with our people enjoying a better standard of living. It is for this reason that the budget is being presented under the theme, Remaining on Course, United in Purpose, Prosperity for All.
I recall the removal of the earlier PPP Government by foreign intervention and their local lackeys. I recall the Hon. Member Dr. Rupert Roopnarine, when he was then a member with the probably dead or now defunct WPA, and the Hon. Member Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, when he was on the side of the people of this country, parading around this country telling us about those difficult periods in the history of our country - when the rights of the Guyanese people were trampled upon; when basic food items were denied to the Guyanese people; when freedom of movement was curtailed. I recall when the father of this nation, another leader of the PPP, wanted to visit the interior and it was so difficult to get permission in those days. I recall when the report of the Auditor General was not presented in this noble House. I recall when the Hon. Member Dr. Roopnarine and the Hon. Member Mr. Nagamootoo were reminding us about the constant rigging of elections in that period.  I even recall that the Hon. Member Dr. Roopnarine and the Hon. Member Mr. Nagamootoo reminding us that we needed to have a cage to cage the dictatorship of the day but I wonder… Today, we see the Hon. Member Dr.  Rupert Roopnarine and the Hon. Member Moses Nagamootoo are on the side of the very people who needed to be caged. I wonder if the people of Guyana would not need two cages at this point in time.
Mr. Nagamootoo: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a Point of Order.
Mr. Speaker: Mr. Nagamootoo, go ahead.
Mr. Nagamootoo: Your Honour, thank you for recognising me. The speaker, obviously, is trying to impute a dishonourable motive on Members who are elected to this House for exercising their democratic choice to be where  they are in this National Assembly and to try to fashion whatever he is saying, not in terms of… but a misrepresentation of what I have said here. I have said in this National Assembly, and I am rising on Standing Order 40, that I have made my contribution to fight for a right order and that is undisputable. What the Hon. Member is trying to do is misrepresent a position that I have articulated in this House.
Mr. Speaker: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Nagamootoo. Your point is taken. Go ahead, Mr. Jafarally. I will listen out keenly.
Mr. Jafarally: I have noticed that the Hon. Member. Dr. Ramayya is not present.  But sitting here in the National Assembly and listening to the Hon. Member last evening, I recalled a favourite comedy show on a local channel in Berbice.
Mr. Speaker, I hope you will give me an opportunity to respond to some of the statements made by the Hon. Member despite him not being present here.  While it was difficult to comprehend what he wanted to say at times, I recognised that he was talking about the education sector in Region 6 - the infrastructure falling apart, education delivery and children not performing.  I want to say very clearly that it was the PPP/C Government which created an environment that is conducive to teaching and learning in this country.
What are the facts? In 2011, two thousand two hundred and thirty-three students wrote the National Grade Six Assessment Examination. Mr. Speaker, 93.1 per cent of those students attained secondary schools in Region 6. Further, twenty-one per cent of the 93.1 per cent attained senior secondary schools such as Queens College, Bishop’s High and New Amsterdam Multilateral School. At the CSEC examination, out of the one thousand five hundred and seventy-three students who wrote the examination in 2011, seventy per cent of those students passed with Grades I to III. What is most notable is that out of that seventy per cent six per cent was above the national average in Guyana. That is progress. One of the top students who gained fifteen passes, with distinction, came from Region 6.
The University of Guyana, Tain Campus, which was established by the PPP/C Government, just as it established the University of Guyana, at Turkeyen... In 2011, one hundred and seventy-four students graduated from the Faculties of Agriculture, Education and Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. Mr. Speaker, the present enrolment for the academic year 2011/2012 is seven hundred and eleven students, an eighty per cent increase over 2010. This is the kind of environment that the Government is creating for our young people to unlock their potential. This reflects a commitment of the one thousand five hundred teachers in Region 6 and it is an indication that our education delivery in Region 6 is meeting the quality imperative of the underlying theme of the National Education Strategic Plan.
All of our secondary schools in Region 6 are equipped with computer laboratories, recognition of the importance of communication and information technology. But, further than that, the process has been started at the primary level and more than twenty primary schools in Berbice, at places such as Krapa, Manchester, Eversham, Corriverton and New Amsterdam, are all equipped with computer laboratories. Recongising the importance of communication and information technology and the need to prepare our next generation for the participation and access of the evolving information superhighway, we have to ensure that we start our computer literacy programme at the very tender age, and that is what this Government has been doing.
The Hon. Member Dr. Ramayya, as I said, we could not clearly understand what he was saying, whether he was criticising the One Laptop Per Family project or whether he was supporting it.  I recall, at that very show, Dr. Ramayya and other Members of the AFC were telling Berbicians that they should not apply for the computer because they would have to work, providing community service, before they received the computer. Today, Berbicians have started receiving their one laptop in areas such as Liverpool, Eversham, Manchester, Lancaster, Port Mourant, Canje, Corriverton. Hundreds of residents, ordinary people, have received their computers.
The Hon. Member Dr. Ramayya spoke about the rice industry and that this Government is not doing enough for the rice industry. I recall, sometime last month, when the Minister of Finance brought Financial Paper No. 7 and he was seeking money for the Manarabisi pump at Black Bush Polder, as I looked at my colleagues of the AFC, they hesitated, they were looking for guidance from their friends in the APNU, before they voted, while the APNU abstained, and after much hesitance, they voted for that sum for the people of Black Bush Polder.
Further, when the Hon. Minister, during his budget presentation, was speaking of the provision of $6 billion towards GPL, I recall the words “bail out” were coming from the Hon. Member Moses Nagamootoo and the Hon. Member Dr. Ramayya. Are not rice farmers going to benefit from this provision? Are not rice farmers going to receive low tariff from this provision? What is the reality of the rice industry in Region 6? Never in the history of rice cultivation, in Region 6, has so many acres been under cultivation. Areas which were abandoned because of lack of drainage and irrigation services by the previous administration, areas such as Sandvoort, now have five hundred acres under cultivation. Speculation and New Forest,  one thousand five hundred  acres under cultivation, Barrow, on the East Bank of Berbice, five hundred acres under cultivation, Whim, fifty-two  front lands, more than  ten thousand under cultivation and  Black Bush Polder, more than  seventeen thousand  acres  under cultivation. Every square inch of land available for agriculture, and the production of rice, has been fully utilised.
In the area of cash crop cultivation, we are proud of our farmers in Berbice. Go any morning to the La Penitence Market or Bourda Market, truck loads of produce would be seen coming from Berbice. More than ten thousand acres are under cultivation. We have made tremendous input into the agricultural sector in Region 6. Our cattle production has increased tremendously because Government has been providing assistance in terms of pasture. The Kokerit savannah has been the latest. Hundreds of acres have been given to the farmers of Region 6.
The Hon. Member spoke about roads and the quality of roads and substandard works, and he went on.  It is important to note that two of the councillors of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) were AFC members and they sat on the works committee and were inspecting roads. So they were apart. The regional administration of Region 6, as the Government of Guyana, has a zero tolerance on corruption and substandard works. In Region 6, in 2011, we were able to rehabilitate   more than one hundred and fifty community roads. In New Amsterdam, in the areas of Stanleytown, Tucber, Smythfield, Angoys Avenue, more than twenty-nine roads were done under the PPP/C Government.  At a time when we are accused of discrimination and marginalisation, the municipality of New Amsterdam is controlled by the PNC. Like the colleagues in this House, the New Amsterdam municipality has never produced a financial statement to the citizens of New Amsterdam for the past fifteen years.
Angoys Avenue, which is part of the township in New Amsterdam, it was this Government’s intervention that today, as my colleague, Hon.  Member Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo mentioned, there is a brand new health centre. Under the Ministry of Housing and Water, a $22 million water programme was expended at Angoys Avenue.    [Ms. Ally:  What about Glasgow and Edinburg?]       I am coming to that. We are a caring Government and we listen to the concerns of the people of this country and we listen to the concerns of the residents of Glasgow, East Bank Berbice. Provision has been made under the Ministry of Public Works to have that road be fixed after the budget. That would no longer be a hunting ground or a hustling ground for my colleagues in the AFC.
In Rose Hall town, there are nineteen community roads which have been developed - in the area of Swamp Section, Williamsburg and central Rose Hall. In Corriverton, there are twenty-two roads, in areas such as Little India, Little Africa, Rampur and central Corriverton. In every single community across Region 6 community roads have been developed. My Hon. colleague, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, spoke of the massive road development in the Black Bush Polder area, East Canje and West Canje, from New Amsterdam right unto Sandvoort. So when the hon. Member Dr. Ramayya…, and perhaps he was not around then, or probably too busy with the comedy show.
In the area of housing, in Regions 6, there was the distribution of over ten thousand house lots to ordinary Guyanese men and women.  Today, we see a sense of belonging and pride, a sense of hope in the lives of young men and women who were able to acquire their own homes under the PPP/C Government.  Farmers, teachers, public servants, sugar workers and market vendors were able to acquire their own homes under the PPP/C Government. This Government is not just merely giving a house lot to the applicants, this Government is working with the financial institution to provide adequate loans at very low interest rate so that our ordinary men and women of this country can build their own homes.
In the sugar industry… and this has been a pet subject on the comedy show, on Saturday evenings. Perhaps my colleagues in the AFC have been taking our sugar workers for granted, but our sugar workers are intelligent people and many of them who were misguided have now openly expressed their regret of ever casting that vote for the AFC. They have seen the utterance; they have seen the connection and they have recognised that it was a mistake. I dare the AFC to vote against this budget and let us go for elections.  The sugar industry will never disappear under the PPP/C Government. I want to make it pellucidly clear that under the PPP/C Government we will not get rid of the sugar industry nor even privatised it because it is very important to this country.
In conclusion, I wish to refer to part of the Budget 2012 presentation by the Hon. Minister of Finance, and I quote:
“The prevailing dispensation will test and hopefully prove our resolve as a People, and within this House our respective will to serve as responsible representatives of a deserving People, to work together in the service to the cause of national development.”
As I said at the start of my presentation, the Budget 2012 is about the people of Guyana, in which our Government represents. We have the opportunity to improve the quality of lives of the people of this country. I now recommend this budget to all the Members of this noble House and looks forward to the year ahead for its implementation. Thank you. [Applause]