– President Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo told hundreds, at a public meeting in Kitty, Georgetown on Wednesday evening, that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) cannot be challenged on the basis of its development track record.
“The Opposition can’t take us on, on our track record. They can’t change our record,” he boasted.
Mr. Jagdeo said the PPP/C’s stalwarts are the ones who fought and struggled with Dr. Cheddi Jagan and have ensured that Guyana’s development has not strayed from the essence of his legacy, not those who have departed from his legacy and are not vociferous defenders of it.
He said many of those campaigning to lead do not do so out of a genuine desire to advance Guyana’s development and improve the livelihoods of Guyanese people, rather they do so out of oversized egos.
“We have come a long way…we cannot squander what we have,” Jagdeo advised.
The Head of State acknowledged that the urban areas have, traditionally, been People’s National Congress (PNC) areas, but called on residents to question what they have received from that party in terms of a better livelihood.
“The City Council is supposed to taking care of Georgetown, but they have done nothing,” he charged.
Jagdeo pointed to the fact that the roads, the development of a dumpsite and the establishment of six major pumps to facilitate drainage, even down to garbage collection has been supported by the PPP/C.

Audited report

On the issue of credibility, he said, for the last 19 years there has not been a single audited report submitted by the City Council.
The President asked: “If we can do it for all of Guyana, why can’t they do it for the City Council?”
He said the lack of credibility extends to the behaviour seen by PNCR turned A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Nomination Day, when the peaceful process turned into chaos by rowdy APNU supporters.
Jagdeo said the same behaviour was seen at the University of Guyana (UG) during the Presidential Candidates Discourse.
“We saw the indications of their behaviour…thuggery on the University Campus…be careful and conscious,” he cautioned.
Jagdeo noted that APNU has not yet published a manifesto to the Guyanese people and the man crafting their plan, Mr. Carl Greenidge, declared Guyana bankrupt in 1992 under his tenure as Finance Minister.
“How can he (Greenidge) have any credibility to craft a plan for the economic future of Guyana,” Jagdeo questioned.
According to him, the Alliance for Change (AFC) is no different, as the persons crafting their plan are “mediocre at best”.
He said AFC Executive Member, Sasenarine Singh has been fired from the last five positions he held in the business world.
“The PPP/C is clear on what to do,” the President emphasised.
He reiterated that the incumbent party is not only clear on the way forward but on how to finance it and ensure that benefits reach the average Guyanese man, woman and child.
He warned that other political parties are making promises of a higher income threshold and lower taxes, among other benefits but common sense would indicate that, if you spend more than you earn, there will be economic turmoil.
Jagdeo called for Guyanese to come out on elections day to ensure that the PPP/C is returned to government to continue and expand the wave of progress and transformation that Guyana has seen in the last two decades, a future of real progress, not idle promises.
Dr. Vindhya Persaud, daughter of veteran politician Reepu Daman Persaud, agreed the evidence is clear that the record of the PPP/C’s is there for the Guyanese people to judge.
“The PPP/C is a party for all Guyanese,” she affirmed.
Persaud said continued progress is the way forward with the PPP/C at the nation’s helm.

Past struggles

She said many young persons are unaware of the past struggles but the older ones know the fear that permeated their daily lives for almost three decades.
“We young people know national unity and peace…the older people only know the fear…we cannot return to that…the peace and prosperity must continue,” Persaud pleaded, acknowledging that the past cannot be forgotten.
PPP/C stalwart, Ms. Gail Teixeira echoed this sentiment, adding that the danger in forgetting the past is that once forgotten it could repeat itself.
She said one of the many vulnerable groups, the indigenous peoples of Guyana were neglected and suffered the worst degradation and poverty under the PNC.
“Today they have been taken out of that poverty…there are schools across many communities…this is what inclusion is about, total development,” Teixeira said.
The incumbent party, she attested, has advanced equality and empowerment for all Guyanese people in every area, education, heath, water and housing, among others.
Teixeira said women are now in charge of their lives, empowered by the education and housing programmes in particular.
“Twenty-nine per cent of households today are headed by women and until men in Guyana step up to their responsibilities, the PPP/C will continue to support struggling women,” she pledged.
Teixeira said Guyana is on a road of progress and has brought massive transformations, despite the “vicious campaign” of the opposition.

Hard work           

Gone are the days of misery, neglected communities and a vulnerable people, she said, stating that the PPP/C took Guyana and restored the nation through decades of hard work, economic stability during a global financial crisis, constructed the infrastructure to advance and reconstructed the health, housing and education, as well as other sectors.
“We have overcome, as a people and as a government, the adversaries,” she asserted.   
Teixeira encouraged those gathered to use their right to vote and not take a PPP/C victory for granted.
“The PPP/C brings its track record to the Guyanese people…the bad days are gone, over and done with,” Teixeira reiterated, maintaining that it has built national unity, a process that has taken decades.
“If APNU thinks they can put together a ‘cotch cotch’ party and call it national unity, they wrong, national unity is not created overnight,” she said.
Teixeira said the PPP/C is positioned, as never before, to launch Guyana in a massive way, with initiatives like the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the One Laptop per Family Programme (OLPF) and the Amaila Falls project.
“Guyana is no longer known for Jonestown and rigged elections. President Jagdeo and the PPP/C has given respectability back to Guyana,” she said, reporting that the country is on a roll and has much of which to be proud.
Teixeira said there must be no reversal of the progress Guyana has seen, rather the nation must move forward.
“Onward, upward may we ever go,” she said, quoting from one of Guyana’s national songs.