The Guyana Government and the main Parliamentary Opposition, the APNU+AFC have resorted to casting blame on each other after images of a six-year-old boy wandering the East Bank Demerara (EBD) highway in search of food went viral earlier this month.
Public outrage mixed with admiration was expressed after an on-duty cop rendered assistance to the child by buying him food and returning him home to his parents.
Lance Corporal Aarif Haniff on January 3, 2022, while performing traffic duties on the Grove Public Road, said he saw a young boy walking along the side of the road in tears and decided to approach the lad to investigate the reason for his tears.
The young boy (name withheld) told the officer that he was very hungry and decided to walk from Little Diamond where he lives until he finds something to eat. He told the policeman that he is only six years old and did not intend to walk all the way to Grove, but he really would appreciate a bite of something to eat.
Lance Corporal Haniff immediately took the young boy to a snackette and allowed him to select items of his choice after which he was safely returned to his family in Little Diamond.
The matter was referenced by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Sherod Duncan this morning during Day Four of the Budget 2022 debates being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.
He said, “A little boy walking to Great Diamond looking for food. How does this ‘biggest budget ever’ affect his life? Six years old and he’s walking…Hunting for food, bare feet in an economy that produced three biggest budgets ever, yet none has touched his life so far.”
Duncan was listing troubling developments recorded within the last 18 months of the PPP/C’s rule to dub budgets under the regime as “failures”.
The Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill, who spoke after Duncan, said that the child’s parents suffered under the former APNU+AFC government, forcing the lad to leave home in search of food.
“I did read the story about the child walking [and] begging and the policeman who met him and bought him food, but Mr Speaker, that boy is in that plight because his parents, over the five-year period that the APNU+AFC were in office, they were unable to take care of themselves, they were unable to take care of their children, they were unable to get a job, they were unable to have savings…This budget restores hope to Guyanese people and will bring them out of poverty,” the minister said.
He looks like an East Indian youngster. Indians (and all members of the human race) take care of their children. I cannot understand this.
Mixed with non-humans may be the reason.