Dear Editor
THE PPP administration’s treatment of young Guyanese, especially those who originate from areas that traditionally supported the coalition government, has been brutal, merciless and genocidal. The PPP engaged in a well-planned and systemic execution of psychological warfare and intentional marginalisation of Guyana’s youth in coalition strongholds.

From 2002 to 2006, former Minister of Home Affairs, the late Ronald Gajraj and the former PPP administration, had partnered with Roger Khan, a known drug trafficker and fugitive from the United States with strong links to the Colombian Mafia and Gorilla Gang, and killed over 400 young men, mainly of African descent. Whether some of these men were considered criminals or not, they like any other citizen in a democratic society deserved to go through the due processes of the law.

They deserved fair trials before juries, which would listen to the evidence and determine if the young men were guilty or innocent. They did not deserve to be savagely murdered; these acts were a breach of ‘NATURAL JUSTICE.”

Among their victims was 18-year-old University of Guyana Student Yohance Douglas. On March 1st, 2003, Douglas was shot and killed by police while travelling with four of his friends at the corner of Sheriff and Bonasika streets, Section ‘K’ Campbellville, Georgetown. The five young men, O’Neil King, Kwesi Heywood, Randolph Goodluck and Ronson Grey along with Douglas who had just left basketball practice, were model citizens and exceptionally talented basketball players. Ronson Gray, who was 19- years -old at the time, was also shot to his mouth.

O’Neil King, the son of police officer Pamela King, was shot in the right hand. The slaughter of Yohance Douglas was part of the genocidal attack on mainly Afro- Guyanese young men carried out by the PPP and former Minister of Home Affairs “Death Squad.” This was a dark time, a dangerous time to be an Afro- Guyanese man living in Guyana as even the educated, model young black men were executed without cause. I was also profiled as a college and university student and was frequently pulled out of public transportation for what was termed “random searches” by masked, black clothes police officers for drugs, I presume, because I sported dreadlocks, was my conclusion at the time.

Growing up you frequently heard the old adage, “Education is the key to success” and lifting one’s self out of poverty; however, after observing the quality of education dished out to us by the PPP government I knew that there was a grave disconnect with what I was told versus what I had observed and experienced.

Government scholarships were given predominantly to PPP supporters. Even those who were undeserving benefitted because of their association with a family, friend or a considered supporter of the PPP. Names on the list for scholarships that were not spelt or sounded a certain way were scratched off, even if those persons overwhelmingly satisfied the requirements for such scholarships. Today, some of those individuals’ academic credentials are being challenged publicly.

The PPP engaged not only in economic genocide of some of the coalition’s stronghold communities, but also in educational apartheid. For more than a decade, the nation heard the cries from the University of Guyana Turkeyen campus about being severely underfunded. With evidence, I submit that the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen campus which is the country’s premier university campus, was merely put on life support by the PPP administration. It must be stated for emphasis and to reaffirm my aforementioned position Mr. Editor, that the Turkeyen campus is located in a coalition stronghold.

While for 23 years the Turkeyen campus suffered neglect and underfunding, the Tain campus which was opened in Corentyne was given all of the necessary facilities and funding. Please note also, that the Tain campus is located in a perceived PPP stronghold. Education, which cannot be overemphasised as the key to the economic upliftment of all of our young people, was used by Comrade Jagdeo and the PPP to systematically impoverish a generation.

During the PPP’s tenure, the Corentyne campus of the University of Guyana had approximately 550 students, and received $132.6 million or approximately $241,091 per student. By contrast, the Turkeyen campus with approximately 5,500 students received $575.2 million or $104,581 per student. Similarly, the capital budget for the Turkeyen campus was $35 million, while that for Berbice was $20 million. This ratio of funding is most disturbing to say the least. For years under the PPP administration, University of Guyana, Turkeyen, struggled to maintain the campus, meet overheads and introduce new programmes. It resorted to raising the tuition fees at Turkeyen as a means of offsetting this reduced expenditure.

In 2002, The PPP administration also discontinued the government subsidy for law students to complete their LEC at the Hugh Wooding Law School. The discontinuation of the subsidy to our law students for a 15-year period, had resulted in students taking burdensome loans to pay for their education and some students putting off their Legal Practical Training certification until years after. In 2016, just after one year in government, the coalition government assisted the batch of 25 law students with $17.5 million to cover 25 % of the total tuition fees for Guyanese students entering the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) in Trinidad and Tobago. These contributions provided much needed financial relief to our law students.

It is a known fact that during the PPP’s tenure, the Critchlow Labour College suffered also as a result of the intentional withdrawal of subventions by the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, while GAWU’s labour college was given a handsome subvention to take care of its programmes.

The withdrawal of this subvention, which was based on political spitefulness and lacked logic, severely crippled this education institution for a long period. While Bharrat Jagdeo and his cohorts built the National Stadium for USD30 million (G$ 6 Billion Guyana Dollars), and the Marriott US$98 million (G$20 Billion), he only allocated the following amounts to education: 2011- $24 billion, 2012-$26.5 billion, 2013 – $28.5B, 2014-32.2 Billion.

Under the David Granger-led coalition government, look at the stark contrast: 2016- 40.3 Billion, 2017- G$43.1 Billion, 2018- G45.3 Billion, 2019- $52.2Billion. Any economist can tell you that this stark difference isn’t due to inflation, but it reflects the priorities of the different governments. The misdirection of budgetary allocations by the Jagdeo-led PPP administration had a systematic, adverse effect on an entire generation of young people, especially those from coalition strongholds.

After undermining the country’s education system, Jagdeo attempted to fix the country’s education woes by his “One laptop per family scheme.” This scheme allowed Jagdeo and his cohorts to syphon off large volumes of cash for themselves through procurement fraud, while they pretended to assist the nation’s youth and address the country’s education deficit.

Finally, as part of their all-out assault on youth in coalition strongholds, they created an entity to culturally bombard people of the main coalition strongholds through several known entertainment outfits with their various international shows and concept parties. The conceptualisation of this PPP- owned entertainment company was intentionally set up to distract the nation’s youth while they were being disenfranchised, destroyed, marginalised and robbed of opportunities for upward mobility.

The PPP has never cared for the nation’s youth, there was no properly put together policy framework to cater for their artistic, athletic or out-of-the-box ideas of our youths. No consideration for their ethnic, religious, cultural interests, or the geographical makeup of their society, be it in the form of a cultural policy, youth policy or sports policy were in place to give direction. Hundreds of young people were incarcerated for small quantities of marijuana, while drug pushers reigned supreme.

It is this government that has taken giant steps to address the many deficiencies of the previous administration and much more is being done to rescue and lift our nation’s youth and Guyana from the abyss of an ingrained and entrenched lawlessness, corruption, malfeasance and nepotism that permeated the Jadgeo era of a failed narco state, inherited by this coalition government. Guyana under the David Granger coalition government is better equipped to continue serving this nation and we must never allow ourselves to forget that most evil, wicked and corrupt PPP administration.

Regards
Jermaine Figueira
Member Of Parliament
Region 10.