-PM urges ‘right-thinking’ Guyanese

SAYING that APNU+AFC is trying to divide the country in an attempt to incite civil unrest, Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips on Wednesday called on all Guyanese to reject these “deceptive actions” and work together to develop Guyana.

The PM made these comments in response to a “mischievous letter” penned by Lelon Saul, the secretary of a group calling itself the Institute for Action Against Discrimination.

“The APNU+AFC is on a treacherous road that they hope will create civil unrest and allow for the breakdown of democracy in Guyana, as was the case under the PNC in the 1970s and 1980s. Leaders in the APNU+AFC continue to push for civil unrest through attacks on the media, physically blockading government officials from engaging with whole communities, behaving unruly in the National Assembly, and adopting a confrontational approach to the President when there should be discussions on key national issues,” the PM said in a letter to the editor.

Noting that plans to railroad the country were not achieved in 2020, he said that all law-abiding Guyanese and civil society, “will continue to forcefully reject the deceptive actions of the APNU+AFC and call for political maturity, which will ensure greater unity and prosperity for all Guyanese.”

According to PM Phillips, the APNU+AFC cabal and affiliated groups continue with desperate attempts at race-baiting which they hope will incite civil unrest against the democratically elected People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government and end the tremendous benefits being experienced by all Guyanese.

He said that Saul, in his letter made “incredibly fraudulent and misleading statements that the government is pushing Guyana to the ‘brink of civil unrest.’”

The PM said that since the letter is addressed to a United States representative, one can only conclude that the author is under the illusion that using false claims will trigger a US intrusion into the affairs of a democratic sovereign state such as Guyana.

“Mr Saul is like so many of the delusional men and women in the failed APNU+AFC regime, who failed to deliver a ‘good life,’ especially to Afro-Guyanese, whom they now misguidedly seek to exploit for political relevance,” he said.

He used the opportunity to also remind Guyanese, that Saul, a former senior officer of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), had served as Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), where he failed to implement a viable government housing programme.

“In less than two and a half years in office, our government has rescued the housing development programme and turned it around, where to date we have issued over 11,000 house lots and low-income houses. The beneficiaries are over 50 per cent Afro-Guyanese. Every relief grant paid by the government saw Afro-Guyanese benefitting. Payments made in the sugar industry have benefitted over 20 per cent of Afro-Guyanese, which is contrary to what the APNU+AFC would have Guyanese believe,” he emphasised.

Additionally, he said many Afro-Guyanese are involved in rice and production of other crops, as well as livestock, and have also benefitted from flood-relief and other support programmes for farmers.

“Recently, this author was the only person who hid behind a mask among a group that received agricultural equipment less than 96 hours after President Irfaan Ali’s recent visit to Belladrum, on a political outreach to the Mahaica-Berbice region,” he said, noting that Saul had the temerity to ask questions of the President about security when visiting PNC strongholds, as if to suggest that the President should not visit those areas.

It was noted too that Saul is the Vice-President of the Guyana Veterans Legion, an organisation that was addressed by President Ali at last Friday’s wreath-laying ceremony at GDF headquarters, Camp Ayanganna.

The President had promised to have the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) deployed this week to address all issues related to benefits for veterans and this promise has been kept.

“The author is an obsequious tentacle affixed to the scheming, manipulative and depraved APNU+AFC that plunged Guyana into chaos, and on the brink of civil unrest following a clumsily hatched plan to strangulate our democracy at the 2020 regional and general elections. They would have gotten away with the heist of our country through stolen elections, had it not been for the vigilance of contesting political parties, the media and the diplomatic missions of the ABCE countries in Guyana,” he added.