The coalition government’s talk about putting youth first has proved to be nothing but lip service, according to opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Pauline Sukhai.
During the debate on the proposed 2017 national budget in the National Assembly on Thursday, Sukhai accused the APNU+AFC of deceiving the youth during the 2015 elections campaign.
“The youth were promised much but have been put out in the cold,” Sukhai declared, while highlighting that there are no young persons in the Cabinet and only one youth representative on the government’s side of the House, MP Jermaine Figueira.
According to Sukhai, there are also no young persons in the Foreign Service, on state boards or on councils—claims which several members on the government side of the House declared to be lies.
Sukhai further noted that despite the passage of the National Youth Policy, the budget lacks adequate allocations to address the problems and challenges faced by youth. Against this background, she called on the government to pursue investments in youth with the same aggressiveness it is pursuing the pension bill for former prime minister Hamilton Green.
Speaking on the $50 million Youth Innovation Fund announced by Finance Minister Winston Jordan, Sukhai said $50 million is not enough. “It is a good start but it is not good enough. So many conditions on the Innovative Youth Fund, I’m sure young people will be shortchanged,” she said explaining that a business today “would almost eat up $50 million.”
