SPEAKER of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman, on Monday, ruled against a motion, by Government’s Chief Whip, Ms. Gail Teixeira, to have a debate on the Agricola unrest of October 11. Teixeira’s request came after the Prime Minister, Mr. Samuel Hinds, on the resumption of sittings after the Parliamentary Recess, called on the House to condemn such acts of violence that took place at Agricola.
But, speaking to the Guyana Chronicle during a break in Monday’s proceedings, Teixeira said: “The Speaker ruled against us and we followed the Standing Orders and got up. There’s a whole period of interpretation and, nevertheless, he ruled against us but that doesn’t stop us. At the next sitting we are bringing a substantive motion on Agricola.”
She further stated that what she found rather interesting was that Leader of the opposition party, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Mr. David Granger said they had nothing to do with the Agricola incidents.
Teixeira said, from the language of Alliance For Change (AFC) Vice- Chairman, Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, it appears as though that party did have some involvement in the unrest.
Nagamootoo had, earlier, said his party believes that the right of the citizens to protest peacefully is circumscribed by the law.
“We recognise, however, the anger of ordinary citizens who suffered grief and loss of life by police bullets, their anger not to be provoked and not to be challenged to rumble and not to be mocked and taunted by officials of the State,” he added.
Teixeira insisted that this issue has to be debated because “violent and violently orchestrated events like that pose threats to our democracy. And in that particular event, on October 11, they threatened the lives of ordinary citizens who are innocent.”

ORCHESTRATED
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s remarks, which prompted Teixeira to propose the motion, deemed the Agricola unrest an act orchestrated by the Opposition and particularly, the AFC.
He said: “I speak of the alarming events in our country that led to disruption of the peace, injury to people and called into question the methods of the opposition forces in our country, namely the Alliance For Change and the APNU, as it appears to the government that they plotted and actively led disturbances that can only be viewed as concerted attempts to destabilise our country with callous disregard for the welfare and security of our people.”  
Hinds said the government was astonished by the statements made by AFC Chairman, Mr. Nigel Hughes, who, on October 8, issued an ultimatum to President Donald Ramotar to dismiss Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee within 48 hours.
The Prime Minister said Hughes also stated that, if, on that date, Minister Rohee was not removed from office within the given timeframe, the AFC would call for mass protest that they would lead themselves.
Hinds said those events created the environment which led to the horrendous occurrence on October 11, the day after the expiry of the ultimatum.
“The events of October 11 were characterised by the setting of fires, blocking off of the East Bank Demerara Highway, attacking of police officers, preventing the Fire Service from operating, assaulting and robbing of innocent citizens, destroying of public buildings and private property and serious disruptions of the lives of citizens,” the Prime Minister lamented.
He said that cannot be viewed as anything but a threat to national security and the peace and public order in the country.

ULTIMATUM
Hinds said, further, that Hughes followed his ultimatum by saying: “I’m not calling for peace, an unfortunate choice of words, I want equal rights and justice which we all want, equal rights and justice for all.”    
He said Hughes, in his follow-up statement, declared: “I don’t care how we get it but we must get it.”
The Prime Minister continued: “This has led the government to form the opinion that the chairman did not care whether his party adopted responsible or destructive methods to achieve their objectives.”
Hinds said it is the government’s opinion that AFC chose the less noble method of instigating, urging, causing and leading unrest, at the expense of ensuring all the people in Agricola were caught up in the mayhem.
“We condemn the attempts by the opposition to destabilise our country as a method of getting into power. We condemn their selfish, callous disregard for the safety and welfare of our people and their readiness to sacrifice peace and public order in our country in their attempt to remove the PPP/C from office,” he asserted.