Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 18, 2018 APNU Column, Features / Columnists
It is ironic and extremely disingenuous that Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP have filed a motion of no-confidence against the APNU+AFC coalition government, claiming to be the saviour of the workers of Guyana and cheer-leaders for transparency and fiscal responsibility. Note to Jagdeo – the 2015 general elections were a referendum on the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) and the majority of the people rejected the PPP.
In his rush to steal the spotlight, Jagdeo is conveniently forgetting that Guyanese lost confidence in the PPP because that party persistently failed to address the people’s basic needs for public services and embarked instead on a series of expensive but misconceived mega-projects such as the Fibre Optic Cable Project, the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project, the Specialty Surgical Hospital and the Amaila Falls Hydro-power Project road.
Jagdeo’s successor, President Donald Ramotar, was obliged to cancel contracts for all of those projects after the loss of billions of tax-payer dollars.
Jagdeo seems to have forgotten that Guyanese rejected the PPP because of discrimination and poor governance that was rampant during their 23 years in office. The PPP ignored the issues of crime, poor infrastructure, sanitation, water-supply, electricity, and lack of recreational facilities in certain neighbourhoods, municipalities and regions. Individuals were victimised for speaking out against the PPP’s improprieties. Persons had their jobs taken away for blowing the whistle on government corruption. Citizens were physically attacked and injured for daring to voice their opposition to the regime’s heavy-handed oppression.
In fact, entire communities were targeted by the dictators in the ironically named Freedom House. Central Georgetown especially, experienced the anger of the regime, because the PPP believed that most of the Capital’s residents did not support their Party. Agricola, Linden, parts of New Amsterdam and other areas, also experienced the regime’s wrath. The PPP dictatorship ruled in a manner which benefited only its closest friends, while those who opposed its discriminatory policies were deliberately punished.
It was the APNU+AFC coalition that raised the minimum wage of public servants and teachers by over 50%, or from $39,540 to $60,000. Increased monthly old-age pension by 48.6% from $13,125 to $19,500 and public assistance from $5,900 to $8,000 in just under three years. It was this coalition that lowered the value added tax and increased the VAT threshold from $10M to $15M; and lowered the corporate tax from 30% to 27.5%.
Jagdeo and the PPP lost the confidence of the people because they failed to address the country’s most pressing problem – the public security crisis. The PPP has never accepted its responsibility for the high rate of armed robberies, the murderous maritime piracy, the rampant gun-running and contraband smuggling and other violent crimes that raged along the coastland during its time in office.
The entire nation was alarmed at the rising homicide rate. There were more than 2,100 murders during the two deadly Jagdeo and Ramotar presidencies. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime listed Guyana’s 2010 homicide rate as the fourth highest murder rate in South America. Guyana’s murder rate under the PPP was three times higher than that of the United States.
The new seekers of truth and filers of motions are of the opinion that the era of the Phantom Squad is forgotten and there is no memory of the fear that gripped this nation during their time in office. They want to us forget that among the victims of the Phantom Gang were Satyadeow Sawh, a Minister of Agriculture, Ronald Waddell, a famous TV talk show host, and George Bacchus, a former member of the Phantom Gang, who was shot to death on the night before he was to implicate a very senior member of that gang.
It is ironic that the newly converted think that we have forgotten how they trampled on the Judiciary and the Legislature. Guyanese will never forget that the PPP government during its time in office orchestrated a pattern of obstruction of justice by protecting cabinet ministers and other functionaries who were involved in criminal activities.
It was instructive that Jagdeo and the PPP did not take part in the recently held anti-corruption march. For who could forget that it was under Jagdeo’s watch, Guyana became one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The Transparency International Corruption Perception Index of 2013 (TICPI) ranked Guyana 136th out of 177 countries – 121 places behind Barbados, the least corrupt country in the Caribbean.
We will not forget that under the PPP, Guyana accumulated one of the worst human rights records in the world. Between 2001 and 2010, Amnesty International reported about the torture and maltreatment of prisoners by the Guyana Police Force and the fatal police shootings in disputed circumstances.
Those of us who lived through those troublesome times can never forget that under the PPP, the use of deadly force against unarmed civilians was commonplace. On July 18, 2013, members of the Guyana Police Force opened fire on a group of unarmed protestors in the town of Linden, resulting in the deaths of Allan Lewis, Ron Summerset, and Chemroy Bouyea, and injuries to several other individuals. The Linden Commission of Inquiry found that the police had used excessive force and awarded compensation to the victims of the deadly police shooting.
During its 23 years in office, the PPP Government established an unenviable record of criminality, corruption, human rights abuse, abuse of power, obstruction of justice and incompetence. Jagdeo would now like for all of us to pretend that none of this happened. The PPP is banking that we will forget the lessons of the recent past and judge them by their new posturing and self-righteous rhetoric.
George Santayana philosopher and essayist famously said that those who forget the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat it.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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