THE Alliance For Change has condemned the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) campaign to demean state leaders including the Speaker of the National Assembly and has called on the party’s MPs to behave in a manner befitting their office. In a statement on Thursday, the AFC said it has observed with distress the campaign by the Bharrat Jagdeo-led opposition to demean state leaders including President David Granger and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland, in an attempt to assassinate their characters and to lower their esteem.
The recent attack by People’s Progressive Party backbencher Mr. Nigel Dharamlall is clearly defamatory and intended to portray the President as being unfit to hold office, the AFC said. “Mr. Dharamlall, on other occasions, had made scurrilous attacks against the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, for which he had been threatened with sanction. The AFC views Mr. Dharamlall’s conduct not only as an insult to all members of the National Assembly, but to our democracy as well. It is not enough for Opposition Leader Mr. Jagdeo to believe that his wayward MP is contrite. We believe that appropriate sanctions should be visited on Mr. Dharamlall as an MP,” the AFC asserted.
The AFC also noted the intemperate and infantile display of another PPP MP, Mr. Anil Nandlall, inside and outside of the National Assembly and his recent disobedience of the Speaker’s ruling is nothing short of contempt for the National Assembly. “While it could be understood that PPP functionaries would indulge in pre-congress vote-catching antics, they ought to be mindful of the damage that their disrespect and contempt could do to Guyana’s image as a parliamentary democracy,” the AFC cautioned. “The AFC believes that there is no room in our politics for personality attacks reminiscent of a period when journalists were referred to as vultures and carrion crows and national business leaders were deemed ignoramuses and the party calls on the PPP MPs and leaders to conduct themselves in a dignified manner befitting their status.”
Jagdeo on Wednesday chastised Dharamlall for ranting on his Facebook page about President Granger. Jagdeo, during a press conference at his party’s Freedom House headquarters, said he had received a number of calls about Dharamlall’s Facebook comments. “I looked at the comments and find them unacceptable, in fact reprehensible. I believe of being critical of the President – the opposition in the past has criticised each other, but it should never get personal,” Jagdeo said.
He said the coalition government can be addressed on issues, but this can be done without being disrespectful. “I have spoken to Mr Dharamlall. He said to me that he recognised that the language was not befitting a Member of Parliament and he apologised to everyone for it and he has expressed contrition to me that there will be no repetition of this sort,” Jagdeo stated. Jagdeo said the PPP/C could deal with venality, duplicity and incompetence by using language that is not hateful or personal.