Guyanese depend year after year on a sensible and critical analysis of the National Budget each year. Guyanese cannot take the information and figures uttered in a budget presentation at face value. But we in Guyana are not accustomed to analyze, question or scrutinize information. Our political and religious leaders make statements and we absorb them – that’s the end. The President or another government official gives a press conference. They make their opening remarks. A few questions are asked and that’s all. We are too familiar with the New Year’s address to the nation and other speeches which are made during the year by public officials and our government leaders. Maybe a columnist or two would comment on their contents but that’s all the discussion you’re going to hear.
Every year, the US President delivers a State of the Union Address to the American people and indeed to the world as well. Moments after the speech, there are immediate reactions and critical analysis. Words and sentences are dissected and placed under a microscope. Usually, the following hours and days in the media are filled with breaking down the speech. Other political leaders and community commentators give their two cents worth about the underlying message of the speech and its implications for the lives of citizens. If there is a loophole, or if there is a slip, the American media will find it. They will bring it to the attention of the American people and the world. They do not suck up or play nice to any government in power.
Perhaps the only real analysis of our National Budget this year, and sadly, presumably every other year would be Stabroek News’s budget analysis by Ram and McRae. Perhaps no other media house can truly present to the Guyanese people a competent study of the annual budget from an economic point of view. These analyses are not the typical regurgitations of the budget speech verbatim – as if seeing the budget presentation air over and over and over on the various television channels is not redundancy enough – but they bring the general public face to face with a true and independent (not biased) picture of what these budget speeches are really about and how their contents affect the lives of the people.
Guyanese, therefore, are urged to take careful note of these analyses, and put them side by side with the fancy TV budget speeches. Guyanese are people who many believe cannot think critically for themselves, so it is these useful critiques of the National Budget which bring them back from the speech’s niceties (and applause) to a state of reality. These enormous budgets with very large figures to be spent on this sector, and that project can be very deceiving to a populace that is appeased by very large figures. Numbers, not looks alone, can be deceiving.
Let’s hope more commentators can come on board and put their democratic powers to the test and demonstrate their journalistic abilities and skills which must be used more than ever at this juncture in our history.
Yours faithfully,
Leon J Suseran
