THE People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), which is now within the David Granger-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), “is doing everything within its power to partner with criminal and rogue elements in this society to undermine the security interest of the State, with the aim of concocting an imaginary crisis situation.”

The accusation was made by General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, yesterday during his weekly press conference at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown.

Speaking in the context of recent statements he claimed were made by APNU that Guyana is now faced with a political crisis, Rohee said that that pronouncement has served to amuse the PPP.
“It is clear that the main Opposition party is either suffering from a severe bout of political amnesia or is being deliberately dishonest in seeking to invoke a situation of crisis when the facts suggest otherwise.
“Perhaps Mr. Granger may wish to spell out in precise language what, in his view, constitutes a political crisis, especially since his statements defy any rational or logical explanation of the term,” Rohee said.
According to him, an “objective” analysis of the current situation though, reveals that Guyana’s economic and political bill of health has never been better and that the country is currently experiencing a period of economic and social progress never before experienced, the minister maintained.
“Whatever crisis exists can only be situated in the demented psyche of the PNC and the Granger-led APNU and cannot be supported by facts,” Rohee declared.
He insisted that Guyana, today, is enjoying relative peace and stability, and the full confidence of the international and donor community.

STARK CONTRAST
“This, incidentally, is in stark contrast to what obtained under the PNC regime, when the country was reduced to a pariah state.
“Economically, the country was reduced to the poorest in the Western Hemisphere on par with Haiti, a past which no right thinking Guyanese is proud to talk about. The PNC and Granger ought to know that there is a nexus between political democracy and economic development. The lack of political democracy under the PNC regime led to a production crisis which, in turn, resulted in a social crisis of unprecedented proportions. What all of that translated to was a crisis of confidence in the then ruling party.
“Guyana was declared uncreditworthy by the IMF and therefore ineligible for further IMF loans. Today, all that has changed. Our country is a proud and respected member of the community of nations and has now become recognised for several initiatives it has taken at the international level, especially in the fields of climate change and poverty reduction,” Rohee related.
He said the PNC is no stranger to crisis situations, having landed this country from one crisis into another. “Now in the Oposition, it is continuing to use the Parliament to undermine the rule of law and constitutional governance in an unsuccessful attempt to create political chaos. The PPP is neither unaware nor unmindful of the PNC’s political ability to create mischief in our society.”
The PPP, he said, is confident that Guyanese, with their maturity and wisdom, will reject and condemn the intrigues and machinations of the political opposition, more particularly the PNC, which, since the early 1960s, sought to create crisis situations.

DECLARED FREE
Continuing, he said, fresh in the memories of the Guyanese people were attempts made by the PNC to deny the free and democratic will of the Guyanese people when the very PNC refused to accept the results of the 1997 elections, despite the fact that the elections were declared free and fair by local and overseas observers.
“The PNC took to the streets and created mayhem in Georgetown through recourse to thugs and criminal elements forcing the PPP Government to cut short its term of office by two years. The race hate generated by the PNC against President Janet Jagan, described as the white American Jew, reached unprecedented heights in our country.
“The PNC refused to accept the results of the elections and took to the streets, inciting all manner of disturbances and violent political behaviour. Were it not for the physical presence of the Carter Centre and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the country at the time, the PNC would have been emboldened to do what they always did since 1968, which was to hijack the democratic will of the Guyanese electorate and reinstall itself to political power,” Rohee asserted.

(By Telesha Ramnarine)