After facing questions about Guyana’s oil wealth and the amount given to its people so far, President Irfaan Ali last Wednesday shut down a Yarrowkabra woman’s line of questioning and instead, opted to dwell on the improvements his government has ushered in throughout its years in office.
The exchange took place during a visit by the President and a few other Ministers to several communities along the Soesdyke\Linden Highway to hear and address the concerns of residents. During the outreach, various questions were raised with the majority of them being discussed, followed by commitments to fix those problems, where possible.
However, when a Yarrowkabra woman questioned the President on the oil sector by asking, “…we have oil as a people, billions of dollars’ worth of oil, we get twenty five thousand dollars now, so I just asking why is it that we cannot get better from our government in terms of whatever the payout will be…?”, she was immediately interrupted by him and was told “Don’t listen to the narrative that has no basis and facts, listen to the truth.”
He then began to compare the previous coalition government to his and pointed out the numerous achievements and initiatives that his government has implemented in order to better the lives of citizens, while also noting that they have not yet started to receive the major income from the oil sector.
“No but I have to give you context,” the visibly irritated President contended, “you don’t come with bluff to me, you have to get context…the last government took away the grant that the school children had, we brought back that grant…we increased old age pension continuously, the last government added VAT on electricity and water, we took out the VAT on electricity and water, that is how we are giving you back, all the increases worldwide on fuel… we removed the taxes so that burden is not passed onto the people, school supplies, test book, the medical centres… we have increased salaries for nurses for the public servants, so we have increased old age pension… that is what is going to make your life better”, he said.
He further lectured to the woman who was surrounded by other persons from the village, “And you see this thing about
billions of dollar coming from oil that is not true… the major revenue from the oil sector is not coming in as yet… the revenue that is coming in from oil and gas is going into a special account, when that money comes in now it goes through the budgetary process… now the resources that is going into financing the budget that comes out of this fund, that is going to go through the parliamentary process of approval… so we are invested in making your life better…”
This year’s budget will including a whopping $208b from the Natural Resource Fund.
In a letter in the last Sunday Stabroek, APNU+AFC MP Annette Ferguson
lauded the courage of the woman and chided Ali for his handling of the question.
“Last Wednesday, January 18, 2023, Mr. Irfaan Ali conducted an outreach in the Yarrowkabra community on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway. What stood out for me is the boldness of a female resident, clearly a critical thinker who, armed with information, asked questions
pertinent to the standard of living faced by ordinary Guyanese. The well-informed and polite citizen asked “we have oil, billions of dollars’ worth of oil and yet people are given $25,000. …. why can’t we get better?” Rather than being a leader who listens to what people have to say, Mr. Ali in his usual arrogant manner did not allow her to complete her questions but interjected and went off on his usual tirade about the Coalition government’s performance during 2015 to 2020. It is sad and painful when leaders try to score cheap political points by not presenting the context and the whole truth to constituents.
“Editor, I publicly applaud that young woman for her boldness to challenge Mr. Ali about the spending of our oil wealth. I believe Guyana has many more like her, but because of the spirit of fear and intimidation perpetuated over this nation by the PPP/C, many are afraid to stand up for their rights, lest they share a similar fate of being dismissed from their jobs like Ms. Ellis from Mocha Arcadia. I say to Guyanese, it is your constitutional right to speak freely. Be bold and speak truth to power”, Ferguson wrote.
