By Jeff Trotman
Stating that PPP/C governments had spent enormous sums on Linden including $25b in power subsidies in the last 10 years, former President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday urged Lindeners to ignore bullying and to vote for his party.
Amid criticism that the party has strayed from the teachings of the Jagans, he declared that members of the PPP/C family are proud “because we have remained faithful to the philosophy of the party because it is forever open to people of all races and religion (and) will always work with people to improve their lives”.
Speaking at a political rally at Lieukenpen Corner, Silvertown, Wismar yesterday, Jagdeo said the record of the PPP/C in government has shown that the party has remained faithful to those principles. “We stand as the only national party in Guyana.”
According to him, the contrived unity that the PNC is talking about “because they took two dissidents from the PPP and offered them a Prime Minister post and a Vice President post is not national unity” since national unity is reflected in policy and in the list of candidates. He further stated that national unity is reflected in the diversity of the persons that appeared on the PPP/C platform at the rally and the appointments made in the Cabinet.
“We are proud of our record. National unity is ensuring that people right across this country progress,” Jagdeo said, adding that when he visited Linden in the early days of the nineties, Burnham Drive was impassable and he spearheaded fixing that road as well as working with residents of Victory Valley to fix bridges and roads in that community.
“We built a new hospital here in Linden for US$15M and now (David) Granger came here and spoke about the colour of the (potable) water; right now, we’re building two water treatment plants that will cost $2.5B right here in Linden and we saved the 650 jobs in the bauxite industry, right here, and in Kwakwani when Aroaima walked away because the PNC union nudged them to walk away everyone thought all the jobs would collapse. We took it over, we bought Aroaima for one dollar and merged Bermine with Aroaima and got Rusal and Oldendorff to invest (US)$150M. As a result of this 750 people now have a job in the Berbice River”, he said.
The former president said that he arrived in the country that morning and he did not want to miss the rally in Linden because he had listened to the APNU+AFC rally that was held in the town two weeks ago and he had found it difficult to respond to anything that Moses Nagmootoo had said because “it was all about fluff”.
He said that Nagamootoo has been diagnosed with megalomania – an unhealthy obsession with himself. “So, sixty percent of his speech is about himself: how great he is; how wonderful; how beautiful is everything around him. Ninety percent of what he says are lies that have been exposed. So, I’m not going to spend any more time talking about him. He’s a waste. He was a waste and will always be a waste.
“And Granger came and said that his biggest thing is that he wants to get a computer for every school child – and that is his ICT plan. But it is the same Granger … who cut the money for the computer for every family.”
Accusing Granger of double standards, Jagdeo said that Granger cut the money for the solar panels for riverain areas and for the Amerindian community. “They cut $4B from the budget for Amerindian Development,” he emphasized, arguing that under the PNC, there was no secondary education for children in the Amerindian communities of Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine. “Today, there are several secondary schools with dormitories that can now accommodate those kids from the hinterland.” He further stated that hundreds of Amerindian children from the hinterland are now on scholarships at institutions in Georgetown and over seventy of them have been given scholarships to study abroad many of them returning as young doctors and engineers.
According to him, when the PPP/C administration attempted to enroll Amerindian children from the hinterland at President’s College, the opposition said the government was attempting to lower the standard of President’s College. “That is how they saw hinterland and riverain people. But after a few years, one girl from an hinterland Region topped President’s College. We’re proud of that – and they talk national unity. That is how they see people of other races”, Jagdeo charged.
Bullying
Stating that he had a special word for two sets of people; those who live at Mackenzie and Wismar – Jagdeo said that for the past three years, the PNC has used the Regional Democratic Council of Region Ten to bully people not to support the PPP/C. “Even over the last few days, they have been saying to them if you go to the PPP rally, you are going to face consequences …. … They are preying on the fears of people because they have a good machinery for bullying people.”
The former President added that he does not think “They’ve ditched (Vanessa) Kissoon. He opined that she has been left off the Regional and national lists of candidates “so that she can continue with the thuggery”. Stating that the PPP/C has been in the forefront for the struggle for change in Linden and Region Ten, the former President said the PPP/C administration spent $25B on electricity subsidies in Linden over the past ten years and if there is blood on anyone’s hand from the electricity protests of 2012 it is on the hands of the Region’s leaders.
“They would tear down our flags. They would tear down our posters,” Jagedo said adding that the people in the community has seen the PPP/C administration work to change their lives in a way that does not exclude Region Ten from development even though it has not supported the PPP/C “and when you go in the ballot box, Vanessa Kissoon, (Sharma) Solomon – none of the others – can’t intimidate you because they are not going to see how you vote and I ask you to teach them a lesson. Say to them, no to intimidation. Vote for the PPP-Civic when you go into the box”
He added that the PPP/C administration has pumped a lot of money into Region Ten but the Regional leaders keep the money at the centre and very little of that money is spent in the riverain areas of the Berbice, Upper Demerara and the Mines. Stating that the opposition has a slogan, which states `It is time’, Jagdeo said, he agrees it is time. He said: “I agree it is time to change this Regional Administration because for the past fifty years the PNC has run this Region. Let’s change that now. They are running the Region and they criticize us. Give us the power to run this Region and you will see progress. We will not discriminate against people, who live in the Berbice and Demerara rivers as they do. They keep everything here in the centre and half of it is stolen. That’s not going to happen if we run this Region.”
Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill chaired the rally, which attracted over five hundred people, clad in white tee shirts with a portrait of President Donald Ramotar. Many of those persons, who attended the rally came by vehicles from the East Bank and the upper reaches of the Demerara River. Among the speakers were President Ramotar, the PPP/C Prime Ministerial Candidate, Elisabeth Harper, Prime Minister Sam Hinds and Public Works Minister Robeson Benn.
