By Johann Earle
Home Affairs Minister and senior member of the PPP Clement Rohee last evening warned residents of Montrose on the East Coast of Demerara to be wary of party exile Moses Nagamootoo, calling him a snake and a liar, and he roasted the Alliance For Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
He was speaking at a community campaign meeting held in Broad Street, Montrose. He attacked the opposition parties for suggesting that the PPP/C is getting ready to rig the elections.
Rohee, known for his way with an audience, said, “These people nah gat conscience. Like a cockroach eat out dem conscience. These people nah got shame.”
Rohee said that the opposition parties do not want to give the PPP/C credit for returning the country to democracy. “We in the PPP/C give the people in the country the right to elect the Government of their choice,” he said, noting that former President in the PNC administration Desmond Hoyte had been pressured into holding free and fair elections in Guyana.
Rohee took the small gathering back to the days when some food items were banned and people had to find innovative ways of making sure their families were decently fed.
He spoke of the role of the British and that the monarchy did not want Cheddi Jagan to be in control. He also spoke of the leaders of the PPP being prohibited from leaving the precincts of Georgetown to meet their constituents and of the suspension of the Constitution. All of these he cited as being the British’s attempts to restrict Jagan because of their fears about his political ideology.
Rohee expressed confidence in the PPP/C gaining at least 51 percent of the votes cast on elections day. He said that when all of the processes are completed after elections, the man that the Chairman of the Elections Commission will call upon to be sworn in as President of Guyana will be Donald Ramotar.
“I want to call on you to come out in your numbers and vote PPP/C,” he charged, during his hour-long delivery. “Awe nah done win already till the last vote count,” he said, adding that elections are all about numbers.
Coming back to the opposition, he said that the PNC is like a woman who goes to the beauty parlour, gets done up with “pedicure and footdicure and handicure and all kind cure.”
Continuing the analogy, the Minister said that when the “woman” leaves the beauty parlour hoping to attract a gentleman caller, she is rejected. “When dem come out dem come out as a brand new second hand gyal,” Rohee said, much to the amusement of the modest gathering. He said that this “woman” was soon able to attract someone who held on to the hem of her “frock” and has been towed along since. He was clearly referring to C.N. Sharma.
He said that APNU Presidential Candidate David Granger was a “total stranger to politics.” But he called Nagamootoo, now a member of the AFC, a liar for saying that President Jagan had chosen him to be his successor. “Nagamootoo tried to pull the greatest scam. Why did he wait until Cheddi dead to say that? Dead men tell no tales,” Rohee said. “De man could prapa lie. He like wan labaria,” he said, to an uproar of laughter.
