— Nagamootoo says PPP stoops to new low

PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo on Thursday slammed the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) for what he described as “disgraceful, awful and disgusting” behaviour during the opening session of the 71st Sitting of the 11th Parliament.

The prime minister referenced the Opposition’s protest in the form of loud chants and placards while President David Granger addressed the National Assembly.

The Opposition from all indications was protesting the President’s appointment of Justice James Patterson to the post of Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

The placards borne by Opposition Leader and former President Bharrat Jagdeo and his team, alleged that the coalition government by its appointment of Justice Patterson will rig the 2020 general elections.

Chants of “No more rigging”, “What about democracy”?, “untrustworthy” and “not fit and proper” among others flooded the Parliament Chambers as President David Granger with support from the governing side maintained his composure and outlined his administration’s achievements since taking office, as well as plans for the future.

In fact, President Granger, though inaudible for most of his fifty plus minutes speech, was resolute in pointing out the fact that the country’s economy has been prudently managed over the past 30 months, which allowed for moderate economic growth of 3.1 per cent in 2015 and 3.3 per cent in 2016 despite unfavourable external environment.

He reminded that the coalition government has adopted measures to improve the living standards of workers and pointed to the increase in the minimum wage of public servants which has increased by 50 per cent or from $39,540 to $60,000, within the past 26 months.

The President noted the reduction of the income tax rate and increased income tax threshold by a minimum of 20 per cent, “measures which boosted our working people’s disposable income.”

Additionally, he noted that national competitiveness has been enhanced by the reduction of the corporation tax rate for manufacturing and non-commercial companies from 30 per cent to 27.5 per cent.

The Value-Added Tax (VAT) was reduced to 14 per cent and the VAT threshold increased from $10M to $15M.

But as he continued to outline, his administration’s agenda before Parliamentarians, members of the diplomatic corps, the Joint Services and media, the PPP hurled unsavory comments towards him.

“Pay the teachers more”! “More jobs for young people” to which at very few times, Speaker of the House Dr Barton Scotland used his gavel to ensure order was maintained.

But the sounding of the gravel was not sufficient to stop the determined Opposition who had in the past walked out when the President addressed the National Assembly.

However, notwithstanding what has been described by the Prime Minister as “political price” paid by the President to endure the ruckus, he believes that the Opposition Leader has attempted to turn the National Assembly into an arena of domestic terrorism with the hope of intimidating the President.

AWFUL AND DISGUSTING
“I believe it was awful, disgraceful, it was disgusting. You see the leader of the Opposition hiding behind a placard, reducing himself to the level of a placard bearer, a picketer in the National Assembly,” said Nagamootoo who recounted that the protests started as murmurs and gravitated to screams.

The prime minister reminded that it was Jagdeo who served as President of Guyana for 12 years and has resorted to such “immaturity”.

“… his response was not a dignified response to the content of what the President had to say. His response was in a kind of a speculative, inventive, bizarre slogan that says ‘no more rigging’.

“Well, we are not dealing with elections this year, and of course Local Government Elections are next year and in 2020 the national elections. All elections 2011, 2015—these have been declared to be free and fair and transparent and credible. This is what the international community has said; there is no issue of rigged elections in Guyana and to hide behind a slogan of rigged elections was infantile,” Prime Minister Nagamootoo, who is also leader of the House stated.

He said he did not expect much different from Jagdeo and noted that they would stop at nothing to distract the President.

“I think they were trying to provoke a response, that the Speaker would rule that they were disorderly, which they were, because they were disrupting the formal sitting of the National Assembly and be ordered out — to claim victory … when put out of the National Assembly.”

Nagamootoo said too that it is his administration’s intention to outline to citizens what it has done and its plans for the future so that the trust placed in it will not be broken.

“I believe today was a tremendous day for politics in Guyana, it marks the introduction of new tactics in the House, a type of guerilla tactic of mixing protest with disorderly behaviour but of course, what else do you expect of an Opposition that has lost credibility, that has lost its government twice; the majority in 2011 and the authority in 2015- they are still in a mood of shock and they behave that way,” declared the prime minister.

He stressed that while today’s demonstration was different from others, it served as an indication that “we have a job to do.”

“President Granger was elected to do a job and he has to do that job.”

Meanwhile, Jagdeo in a statement to the media after the end of Parliament criticised the President for what he considered to be lack of originality.

“I have said before that we could have expected another good life speech, opening up the interior, that the Forestry Commission’s job is to monitor the forests – useless things. He has not dealt with any of the major issues affecting Guyanese – the crime and how he will tackle the increase in crime; how he will tackle the increased loss of jobs in our economy; how he would tackle investments; in fact, he said we are attracting more investments now, when the reality is very different… he even talks about projects that were started under the PPP (when he says) ‘we have just completed the four-lane road on the East Bank. Does he not have anything original or relevant to say?”

The Opposition PPP has refused to listen to the President’s address in the National Assembly since the coalition government took office and according to Jagdeo, his party has “walked out in the past and not listened to the President, when there were other breaches of the Constitution.”

“But this breach (the unilateral appointment of a GECOM Chairman in violation of Constitutional provisions) was so egregious that just staying away was not adequate. We had to be here actively protesting the breach of the Constitution and the (undermining of) the rule of law. Therefore, that is why we took this action – to highlight; not only to Guyana, but to the international community that was here, about how seriously we, and the country, view this matter.”

Parliament has been adjourned until November 17.