Dear Editor,
In the hallowed halls of Guyana’s National Assembly, as the 2026 Budget debates thundered to life on February 2, the air cracked with something rare—truth unvarnished. Three WIN MPs, making their maiden presentations, unleashed a political storm the PPP/C benches never saw coming. Vishnu Panday, Gobin H. Harbhajan, and Deon La Cruz didn’t merely speak; they summoned the forgotten voices of real Guyanese, wielding lived experience as weapon and witness. Their words didn’t read from a script—they ripped through the fiction.
Panday, anchored in conviction, tore through the $1.558 trillion illusion with surgical rage. “Oil money flows, yet families scrape,” he thundered—and the chamber shuddered. Gone were the comfort phrases of prosperity; in their place stood portraits of ordinary struggle, of overdrafts and empty pots, while the nation’s wealth fattened the privileged few. He peeled back the façade of fiscal “growth” to expose a government addicted to borrowing, raiding the sovereign fund while starving its people.
Harbhajan followed, sharp as glass, dissecting the regime’s billboard projects with cold precision. “Roads to where? Hospitals for whom?” he demanded, making ministers squirm beneath the fluorescent light of accountability. His interrogation was not noise—it was truth measured in decibels of conscience.
Then rose Deon La Cruz, the Indigenous son of the soil, whose voice echoed through Parliament like a drumbeat from the heartlands. His call—We Invest in Nationhood—was less slogan and more scripture. In his lament for those left behind, he bridged heritage and hunger, culture and compassion. His speech reminded the nation that inclusion is not charity—it is the cornerstone of justice.
And yet, the fire only blazed hotter. Nandranie Singh, fierce and fearless, detonated a truth-bomb so piercing it rattled the Chair himself into an unorthodox—and revealing—rebuttal. Her rebuke cut through the government’s smug defense, laying bare how deep the rot of partiality and neglect has sunk. Singh’s defiance was more than dissent—it was a mirror held up to power, and power flinched.
Then came Odessa Primus—unstoppable, incandescent, alive. Taking the floor in living colour, she electrified the House while flaying the Youth and Culture budget for its hypocrisy. With poise and passion, Primus laid bare the insult of token allocations dressed as empowerment, reminding the nation that culture is not entertainment—it’s the lifeblood of identity and a weapon for unlocking youth potential. Her delivery was not a performance—it was prophecy.
What unnerved the government was not opposition anger—it was opposition authenticity. In a chamber often dulled by rehearsed defenses and hollow applause, these WIN MPs spoke with unfiltered conviction and the authority of experience. Their voices sliced through spin, their stories breathed the oxygen of truth back into the National Assembly. And when WIN claimed 13 of 20 opposition slots in that debate, it wasn’t mere arithmetic—it was a pulse check for democracy.
Guyanese, take heed. These are not career politicians—they are catalysts. Panday burns for fiscal justice; Harbhajan hunts for accountability; La Cruz thunders for inclusion; Singh roars for fairness and dignity; and Primus rekindles cultural pride.
Together they remind this nation that Parliament’s purpose is not to defend power but to serve people. Their emergence marks something greater than opposition—it marks awakening. The government benches squirmed, but the nation stirred. Let that tremor grow. Because Guyana deserves leaders who speak not to please, but to provoke progress.
Yours truly,
Hemdutt Kumar
