PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo last night firmly declared that he has the right as President of this country to go anywhere or to any community and insisted that he will exercise that right, despite murmurings from Opposition quarters on his visit last week to Buxton.
Taking on the critics, he said neither People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader Robert Corbin nor others, including those in the “defunct” Working People’s Alliance (WPA), “from their lofty perches will deny me that right or deny people’s access to me.”

He took the fight to Mr. Corbin and others who have objected to the Buxton visit at a rally at Bath, West Coast Berbice, to wrap up yesterday’s Cabinet outreach to Region Five.

The President stated that some people want to maintain ethnic enclaves in Guyana but declared that his government and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) will fight against this.

He urged Guyanese to guard against those who want to divide them along race, religion and other lines, declaring, “Don’t let anyone play the race card again”.

Most of those objecting to the visit at the invitation of Buxtonians sought to convey the impression that it smacked of electioneering and had to do more with political expediency than a genuine care for the people of the once-troubled village.

But the President pointedly asked who was really using Buxton opportunistically and noted that the village had been demonized and he had “made it clear through the problems that most of the people in Buxton were victims…They were not the perpetrators but there was a criminal gang (that was responsible).”

He said only a mad man or someone deranged would claim that it was the PPP/C that had criminalised Buxton, recalling the profound influence a teacher from Buxton had on him when she persuaded him to write the GCE Advanced Level exams while he was a student.

Mr. Jagdeo added that she was the one who influenced him the most outside of his mother and father.

“Buxton has a proud history”, he said, but noted that after the criminal gang took up residence in the village following the 2002 Georgetown prison break, many people had to leave the village.

“How can they live there when bullets were flying in their village all the time,” he said.

President Jagdeo said too that those who did not have any alternative but to live in the village lived there in fear of the criminal gangs.

“Some of those suspected of speaking out…their houses were burnt and the Opposition never said a word,” he said, accusing Corbin of being in contact with the criminals holed up in the village.

Mr. Jagdeo said that there was a drying up of economic activities in the village because of the hold of the criminal gang.

“Thankfully, the gang is gone. People are trying to pick up back their lives and move on. They are trying to make progress; they have a right to ask for help from the State and I said `yes, we will work with you to pick up back your lives’.
The Opposition never said a word all the years. The only time that they became active was after I went to Buxton,” he said, noting that they became active by words.

“We are working with the farmers in agriculture. We are working with the single parents to ensure that they can have something to give to their children. We are working with the teachers in the schools so that the kids who were subjected to violence or saw violent acts that they could get the help to ensure that they have a proper life,” he said.

“The Opposition should applaud this, but somehow they feel that the people of Buxton must remain in that state so that they can use it to criticize the government. First, they were saying we’re not doing enough. Now we’ve gone there — its politics.”

“I have said to the people of Buxton, `Whether you vote for the PPP/C or not it doesn’t matter. I would like you to vote for the PPP/C but I am not here for that. I am here because I am President of all Guyana – PPP, PNC and every other supporter,” he said.

President Jagdeo said Dr. David Hinds and other members of the now defunct WPA were a disgrace to the memory of the late party co-founder and brilliant historian, Dr. Walter Rodney.

“Their policies are built all around race and that was not what Rodney stood for,” he said, pointing to their statement that the Buxtonians were trading dignity for a loaf of bread by inviting the President to visit the community.

“They are not trading their dignity. They are trying to improve their lives,” said the President.

Responding to arguments that the Buxtonians were being “slaves” for accepting help from the government, the President said that this sort of language must be abhorred and condemned.
“We should not stay silent. This offends our collective dignity,” he declared.