OPINION: Boycott the budget debate, nothing changes, foregone conclusion

Last Updated on Monday, 2 February 2026, 21:19 by Writer

By GHK Lall

The parliamentary debate on the 2026 budget starts at 14:00hrs today. Why even have a budget debate? Of what utility is the debate? To the Guyanese people? To the reputations of those involved, going through the motions, making spectacles of themselves? Here’s one for the Speaker of the National Assembly to consider: how does the budget debate contribute to the moral and ethical uplift of Guyanese listeners, especially children? Surely, the Speaker, a man who should know a farce before it is manufactured, should have no stomach for one more farce, one that runs for many boring, yawning days.

Nothing is going to change. Not one line item in any one area identified for one dollar. Or a billion, then several. Thus, what is broadcast as the 2026 budget debate is more than a farce, more than a meaningless game to be played. It’s a foregone conclusion. Therefore, I submit that it is an insult to the dignity of Guyanese to have this trial, with jury empaneled, and a referee running behind the players to keep them following the rules, with no foul plays sneaked in when attention is distracted. After all the jawing and playing to the cameras and bitterly divided citizens, as well as upsetting them further, budget debate in Guyana should be outlawed. Any Guyanese, from any political party, who participates in what is a serial scam, ought to be charged with a felony. Those who look should be dealt the same fate. A trespass against the conscience of the peoples of this rich and poor, highflying and bottom-feeding, nation.

What will Dr. Ashni Singh have to say that doesn’t rip poor Guyanese a new one? What bright words, with brighter smile (probably a smirk), can this national scholar offer that don’t place a tighter collar around the necks of Guyanese? Guyanese couldn’t breathe, and there was the friendly community-minded minister, Dr. Singh with his 2026 extravaganza of a budget that just out de lite of Guyanese who were hoping for a l’il special sumting. And, if that was too much to hope for, then any li’l someting for poverty amelioration. They know everything that there is to know about poverty, but are yet to see a scrap of anything substantial relative to amelioration.

Half of Guyana (some insist that it is more than half) is stuck in poverty, and Dr. Singh’s trillion and half budget only got five cents for this segment, and ten cents for another. In any other country that boasts of a trillion plus national budget, and the best that the government can put in the hands of the masses is five cents for this and ten cents for that, there would be a revolution. Take the oil and stuff it in a sock. Bring back sweet broom tea for a hot, invigorating beverage, and black-sage for a toothbrush and Listerine.

The PPP guvment tek deh eyes and pass Guyanese people. Dis savage and barbaric PPP guvment cheating the Guyanese people. The opposition, jointly or severally, should be making hay with that, and then this one from the parliamentary archives. Dis cunfounded nonsense mus cum to a stap. Who is there in the opposition that has that kind of nerve, that species of cojones, to raise the cry to the rafters? From my perspective, if there cannot be bringing about any change in the budget, then the next best effort would be to bring down the house. Before any citizen gets any fancy ideas, I am not calling for any Guy Fawkes plot re bringing down the house. If persuasive power is lacking, or has no effect, then all that is left is to haul out the funny stuff and make a fool out of all those PPP Govt contributors lining up to have their moment in the sun with this year’s budget. Make them look small and silly before the people they lured with their campaign promises. Those gullible and vulnerable citizens, who are now trapped by Dr. Ashni Singh’s apocalyptic surgical carving out of Guyanese life, his dismal and disillusioning 2026 budget. The man is well-equipped to be a mortician, and seeing he is a doctor, a pathologist would be the best use of someone with his prowess.

The PNC, WIN, and FGM should boycott the budget debate. No value, no use. No serving of Guyanese interests. Leave the PPP Govt to play with it.