One hopes that it will be a civilized one, and not one that degenerates into a ruckus or “fish market” scene. The entire nation will be watching and observing our elected representatives at work in terms of what is clearly the most important engagement of legislators in any one year…To the extent that there is merit in the argument against a proposed budget measure, one would expect that the appropriate adjustments will be made. After all, this is the purpose of the budget debate…. We must avoid using the majority status in the Assembly to vote down well-intentioned, meaningful and justifiable suggestions for improvement. We must rise above partisan political interests and put the interest of the country and its citizens first. Yes, we can, and it is for this reason this column advocates that when it comes to approval of the Estimates, let there be “conscience” voting rather than voting along party lines. Let us avoid defending the indefensible!
In last week’s article, we had stated that the 2017 Estimates tabled in the National Assembly last
