Latest update May 13th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 20, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
I write in response to the Kaieteur News editorial of September 14, “A Broken Party.” This editorial reflects such bias views and arrogant contempt for the PPP, that it is most likely written by someone with the mindset of a Freddie Kissoon, although Freddie is not that naïve. The editorial begins, “History has shown that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has descended into an abyss of a mere vote-getting machine based on race politics bent on dividing the country.” Surly, the writer should have done some research before putting his pen into gear. With all the irregularities that took part during the 2015 General Election, the PPP/C secured 202,694 votes to the APNU+AFC 207,200 votes, a difference of 4,506 votes. In 2011, the APNU and the AFC contested separately, but secured a total of 175,011 votes, compared to 166,340 for the PPP/C (source: GECOM).
Then at the Local Government Elections in March 2016, the PPP/C won 24,894 MORE VOTES than the governing APNU+AFC, securing 48 NDCs in the seventy (70) Local Authority Areas contested. These results clearly demonstrate that the PPP is still the largest political party in the country. This, dear editor, is our history as documented by GECOM, and no rational person would describe this as a “broken party”.
But it gets even more absurd. The writer propagates, “The PPP is distinctive from other political parties in Guyana because it is corrupt and crooked. It does not have a vision and the challenge its members face today is new leadership. The party is at a critical crossroad, it is a broken party, and its members are asking serious questions about its future, its leadership and what role it can exercise in the future governance of the country.” Well now, this diatribe is beginning to sound more like an Abel Seetaram.
So before I respond to the faults in the editorial, let me once again for transparency and self-disclosure, admit that I was once a fierce critic of former President Bharrat Jagdeo and his PPP Administration. While living in New York, my hunger for news out of Guyana caused me to be negatively influenced by the onslaught of news critical to the PPP government, propagated by the local online press and Mark Benschop on his hate radio. Without facts or evidence, I too joined the misinformation campaign, and maliciously accused the Jagdeo Administration of corruption in much the same way as this administration is doing now. But then, after returning regularly on vacations, I was able to see firsthand, the metamorphosis that had taken place from the hopelessness I had left behind when I migrated during the reign of the PNC.
Despite the allegations of corruption prosperity was evident everywhere. Guyanese owned more cars and beautiful homes that ever before. There were new schools and hospitals and a network of beautifully paved roads. Guyanese had jobs and money in their pockets. Blackouts were rapidly diminishing. The crime rate was still too high and there were pockets of problems of course, but in general, people were mostly happy.
The political landscape in Guyana is a vicious one, and it is very easy to peddle lies and misinformation and slander ones character for political gains.
The APNU+AFC has a strategy to retain power in 2020. It is ruthless, and relies on the unscrupulous tactics the PNC had been using effectively for years against the PPP. Tactics that have resonated well with their political base. The APNU+AFC re-election campaign strategy is now known. The strategy has been leaked and focused of three main areas:
1. They will, “Keep propagandizing on the issue of having inherited an empty treasury” from the PPP in 2015.
2. They will “continue to restate that the economy was surviving on drug money.” And
3. They will “continue to prod favorable media houses and social media operatives so that they further fuel the perception that the PPP is racist.”
With all the scandals; lack of performance and broken promises, the APNU+AFC is getting more desperate now. They can no longer play the “anti-corruption” card because they are now corrupt. They can no longer play the “economic development” card because the economy is struggling and there are no investors lining up to come to Guyana.
Neither can they play the “increase social welfare” card because with the lack of jobs, increased taxes and 14% VAT on water and electricity, more poverty and criminals are being created.
Harry Gill (MP- PPP)
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May 13, 2024
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