ATTORNEY General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has warned the electorate about the People’s National Congress (PNC) party, saying that that party has maintained in the Caribbean an unenviable record of being destructive both in and out of Government.

His pronouncements came against the backdrop of fast approaching General and Regional Elections, and as the coalition of A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) prepare to launch its campaign in Berbice today at Whim village in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

That coalition’s archrival, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), will be rallying the masses today in Georgetown at a campaign billed for staging at the Kitty Market Square. The ruling party is seeking both to remain in power and to regain a majority of seats in the National Assembly, which it lost in the 2011 elections.

Speaking at a recent party rally at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, the Attorney General was adamant that the PNCR is the controller of APNU, and that it has managed to recruit the Alliance For Change (AFC) as the latest member of its harem of ‘concubines’. The PNCR-controlled APNU and the AFC, he said, are now one in ideology.

Nandlall told the sizeable gathering of supporters that the APNU+AFC alliance’s call for change is misguided. He opined that the PNC is suffering from an identity crisis and is doing all it can to change. Buttressing his argument, Minister Nandlall said that since the PNC party lost power in the first democratic elections held in 1992, it has changed its identity from PNC to PNCR (Reform), then to PNCR-1 Guyana, then to APNU; but it remains essentially the same outfit in character.

UNCHANGING CHARACTER
Today, he said, the PNC party is called APNU+AFC; but although that party has repeatedly changed its name, it has not changed its character and vintage tendencies.
Nandlall pointed out that the APNU+AFC is really the PNC in disguise, the party that had, for 28 years, maintained a stranglehold on power through violence, extra-judicial killings, political assassinations, and wanton abuse of the citizenry, including the banning of basic foods items.

He urged the gathering, listening with rapt attention, to know the ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’; and he said that many young people today would not be aware, but in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the votes of their parents and grandparents had been trampled upon, and demand for scrutiny had been silenced by the bullet. He was referring to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), in the 1970s in Berbice, gunning down two young men who had been concerned about the safety and integrity of the ballot boxes.

Nandlall said that instruction to members of the Guyana Defence Force to use deadly force could only have come from their superiors in the army, and APNU+AFC Leader, retired Brigadier David Granger, had been a senior functionary in the GDF at that time.

“Granger has blood on his hands!” Nandlall told the gathering. He asked: “Is this the man who you want to lead the country?” And the crowd responded with a resounding “No!”

“They not only rigged the elections,” he said, “they muzzled the press, denying newsprint for the PPP newspaper, the Mirror, and the Working People’s Alliance’s (WPA) Dayclean.”

ALPHA and OMEGA
And as if that were not enough, Minister Nandlall said the PNC proudly flew their party flag over the Court of Appeal, signalling to all and sundry — except their ‘boys’ — that the party was the ‘alpha’ and ‘omega’ when it came to the provision of justice.

Nandlall said the PNC controlled the Police Force, the army, and several militia groups; and through these and the court system, they made clear to the populace that whatever wrong they did was to be considered right.

“They run the country like their private property,” he said, “and in doing so, they ran it into the ground,” he told the gathering of men, women and children who listened attentively.

Nandlall also said, “The freedom of the people was taken away, the economy collapsed, and every sector was lost when the PNC left office in 1992.”

BURNHAM/D’AGUIAR
He said that when Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of the PNC teamed up with Peter D’ Aguiar of The United Force (TUF) to edge Dr Cheddi Jagan from power, the country had, at that time, been touted as the breadbasket of the Caribbean; but when the PNC party was voted out of office in 1992, the nation hardly had any bread for itself.

That was part of the ‘high heap’ of challenges the PPP/C Government had to confront when it assumed power, he said; and amidst great struggle, the PPPC has managed, since 1992, to haul Guyana out of a financial black hole and position it on the path to prosperity today.

Challenges still remain, he conceded; but, he said, it calls for the collective will of the people, in that resilient spirit of the PPP/C, to “make it happen”. And a simple way to so do is for the people to vote unreservedly and unapologetically for the PPP/C, come May 11, he advised.

He warned that the destructive propensity of the PNC is no secret, and that, even in Opposition, the party brutalised, burned and looted; and through APNU, with the help of the AFC, it slashed Government’s transformational projects, denying jobs for thousands. But yet, he said, they scream about unemployment and complain about progress.

PROGRESS
Today, he said, the majority of Guyanese own their own homes; and this programme will intensify if the PPP/C Government is re-elected.

Children, he said, are given free meals and school uniforms by the Government to encourage them to attend school; and the physical landscape of the country has been transformed.

Saying that progress is there for all to see, Minister Nandlall contended that one has to objectively ask one’s self the following questions: How many (persons had) owned their own homes 20 years ago, and how many own their own homes today? How many used to cook on ‘fireside’, and how many still do so today? How many had television 20 years ago, and how many have today? What was the state of the roads 20 years ago, and what is the state today? How many owned a vehicle 20 years ago, and how many own a vehicle today, and what type is it? And how many had access to a telephone 20 years ago, and how many have access today?

Today, he said, practically every child has a cellphone, and some are even called “mango pelters”.

Guyana, he said, has attained the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of Universal Primary Education; and when eight more classrooms have been completed (expected before September), Guyana would have attained the MDG of Universal Secondary Education.

The Government, Nandlall said, is investing heavily in education, as it realises that education is the vehicle to take people out of poverty, and the country also needs a skilled workforce to move by leaps and bounds.

Once re-elected with a majority, Nandlall said, the Government would bring the hydro project the Opposition voted down back on stream; build a deep water harbour; and construct the road from Georgetown to Lethem.
While acknowledging that every country is affected by corruption, Nandlall said the Government has never denied the existence of corruption, but continues to fight the scourge.

He said too, that the future of Guyana is bright and he called on the Vreed-en-Hoop gathering and the masses to give their full support to the PPP/C on May 11.

(Tajeram Mohabir)