Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Oct 31, 2011 News
– Nagamootoo calls Freedom House the ‘Rob St Gang’
– Joey Jagan says “Moses lied!”
By Leon Suseran
Tempers flared on the Corentyne on Sunday during fiery speeches as massive crowds turned out for both the People’s Progressive Party/CIVIC (PPP/C) and Alliance for Change (AFC) rallies at the Port Mourant Market Square and Whim Road, respectively.
And what a homecoming it was for former PPP Executive Member, Moses Nagamootoo, who was pleased at “the single largest public meeting in Whim I have ever addressed in all my life.”
Over at his place of birth, Nagamootoo spoke passionately that Guyana has “come to a dead stop” and is “morally bankrupt”.
He lauded the AFC presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan’s movement through the ranks in the party.
“He was considered in the party as one of the brilliant young lawyers. Ramjattan was there and he was a man of ideas. I was in the party when Ramajattan was talking about professionalizing the Police Force…bring competent people, and Jagdeo and them didn’t like his ideas, because we know a lot of top brass were involved in drugs.
And this man stood up in the party and called for the corrupt ones to be weeded out, and they refused to do that. The result was that the criminals took over and we have lost hundreds of lives in this country,” he told the gathering.
Nagamootoo said that instead of the party giving tribute to Ramjattan, they “framed him up because he was a rising star in the party and they were afraid that he will go to the top. They brought him down one day and said he was a spy; he was giving information to the Canadian and U.S. Embassy. They trailed him. I was the only one who stood up and said this man should be given a fair trial,” Nagamootoo said. He noted that he warned the PPP when they expelled Ramjattan a few years ago that they (the PPP) will pay the price later. “I said the PPP will pay a dear price and they are paying it today!”
A visibly upset Nagamootoo then lashed out against President Bharrat Jagdeo’s recent attacks on him by saying that Jagdeo suffers from “a strong bout of political diarrhea”.
“He can’t zip that mouth,” he posited.
He noted that every time Jagdeo opens his mouth, “he cusses up the newspaper people and call them carrion crows and vultures”.
He referred to Jagdeo as a “politically-advanced creature” who thinks he can “judge and pronounce on the life and death of anyone.”
Speaking to a packed Whim Road square, Nagamootoo said that “the Robb Street Gang” has destroyed the integrity of Freedom House. “They make Ali Baba and the 40 thieves look foolish!”
Referring to sugar workers, Nagamootoo, said he stood up for them since they were threatening to de-recognize the GAWU.
“Jagan would never do that. Jagan was produced by the sugar industry. The PPP was born in the womb of the sugar workers’ struggle,” he said.
He said he has no place in Freedom House, which he referred to as “a defecated room”.
Nagamootoo added that President Jagdeo “was this ‘sou- sou’ who wanted to castrate the sugar workers and make them like himself!
The crowd then sang ‘Old Mc Donald had a farm’ when Nagamootoo referred to Ramotar as one of the cartoon duck characters.
“When they rigged the system and denied the members to vote, to choose the presidential candidate, I accused him of political quackery,” Nagamootoo stated.
Nagamootoo outlined a period while he was minister of government and he was reviled by several cabinet members because he stood his ground and tried his best to preserve the party legacy.
He said they “hated him” in the cabinet. One instance was when he said a Minister approached him for over $1M to travel 1st Class to Malaysia. He said he became angry since there was squandering of funds. “There was a time when the Ministers wanted more money for salaries. I said we can only accept salaries when the nurses and teachers get increase, then we can get increase as well.”
The politician said he wants to represent his people’s interests in this time of oppression.
Nagamootoo said that he has joined the AFC during a serious examination.
“Today, the people in power…..they are the ones you read in the Wikileaks…they are rubbing shoulders with drug lords, criminal gangs and money launderers,” Nagamootoo said, adding that he paid a price for speaking out about those things.
He referred to the “Robb St Gang being denied visas for the US…tainted by corruption, tainted by people, who have destroyed this country and wanted misery for the lives of so many people”. “We are seen here as a Drug State. This is not what Dr Jagan fought for. We fought for international respect and today we are receiving international condemnation!”
He asked the crowd if they had to pass a verdict of Guilty or Not Guilty, what their verdict would be. The crowd responded loudly, “Guilty!”
He said the party will be charged “for domestic violence, with the rape of the treasury… with globe trotting..giving away the resources of the people…with criminal offenses of keeping workers on a starvation wage…secret funds all over”. “This man [Jagdeo] is running a poosur- poossur government…who has been using the government as a real- estate agency”, he said referring to Pradoville II.
Meanwhile, over at Port Mourant, the birthplace of the PPP Founder, Dr Cheddie Jagan, another sizeable crowd gathered to listen to the messages of the party.
Son of the late Dr Jagan, Cheddie “Joey” Jagan, was one of the speakers who chastised Moses Nagamootoo for leaving his father’s party.
“No party in the world is perfect. Rome was not built in a day. We must be patient and understanding,” he said.
“The cup is running over. The cup is not the key. Moses left the cup and now he hanging his mouth and no soup is coming out,” Joey Jagan added.
He called Moses a liar as well, referring to the matter whereby it is claimed that the party’s founder chose him as his successor before his death in 1997.
“I was next to my father when he wrote his last words in Washington. He never mentioned Moses! That was the last thing he ever signed, that my mother should become President. Moses lied! It ain’t true!” he said.
Jagan called Nagamootoo “a negligible quantity in the best circumstances”, and praised Donald Ramotar for being the man who would carry on his father’s legacy.
He called Ramotar “a man of humility”.
“That is what my father believed in”, he posited. “Mr Ramotar is a solid family man. He will treat us just like he treats his family; that, he has pledged me. He will open his ears to every Guyanese; that he has pledged me!”
“Don’t worry with the key. It can’t open no locks. It cannot open a house, or a lock on a chicken coup. The key cannot open nothing for you and me,” the son of two of Guyana’s former presidents told the crowd.
He accused Nagamootoo and Ramjattan of “having no moral high ground” and said neither of them is preserving his father’s legacy.
He kept referring to the Cheddie Jagan legacy as the crowd became wild at every mention of the name of the late president. “Jagan made up the cup. He started with the cup and finished with the cup. Those who want to drink soup out of the cup, that is their problem! There are a lot of soup-drinkers around, and we have to be careful about that. Jagan did not tolerate soup drinkers; he didn’t have time for that,” he posited.
Regional Chairman of Region 6, Zulfikar Mustapha announced the “surprise” for the evening; a cross-over member of the AFC joining forces with the PPP. Former AFC Executive Member, Gaumattie Singh, then took the podium while the crowd responded with applause and shouts. She was immediately garlanded, and asked revelers who they would be voting for. They responded, “the PPP!”
She urged the crowd that it is imperative to carry on the legacy of Dr Jagan.
She asked women in the crowd how many young women are represented by the AFC. “None! It has none in Region 6, but you have from the PPP/C!”
She told the crowd how she was disenfranchised by the AFC regarding a parliamentary seat.
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