–PPP/C says

THE PNC-led APNU+AFC opposition has demonstrated time and time again that it is incapable of offering meaningful leadership to its constituents, or anyone for that matter, and is therefore in its familiar obstructionist mode, with racism being its primary tool of choice, according to the People’s Progressive Party.

In a statement last night, the party said that the latest manifestation of the Opposition’s poor leadership and racist tendencies was seen on Monday when Mayor Ubraj Narine “unleashed his vile, obnoxious, and religiously offensive tirade” during an attempt to obstruct the removal of vendors encumbering the New Market Street entrance of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

According to the statement, the issue of vending in that area has been a sore one since 2015 when the GPHC made its first complaint. “Its pleas for intervention by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council fell on deaf ears, even as the number of vendors increased exponentially and the City Council collected thousands of dollars in revenue from them,” the statement added.

It noted that it is clear that Mayor Narine and the Aubrey Norton-led APNU+AFC have placed the collection of fees from the vendors and the perpetuation of their “racist, obstructionist agenda” ahead of the lives and well-being of pregnant mothers, the sick and accident victims whose access to critical primary healthcare are being delayed by congestion of the pathways for ambulances and other vehicles transporting them.

“The blame for this uncaring, insensitive, obstructionist act should be laid squarely at the feet of PNC and Opposition Leader Mr. Aubrey Norton who has been unabatingly setting a tone of obstruction and division along ethnic and religious lines.

Instead of offering some sort of rebuke or reprimand, Mr. Norton doubles down on his racist incitement by daring to compare the attack and brutalisation of vendors at Mon Repos Market which he orchestrated and defended, with the removal of vendors encumbering the entrance to the country’s premier public health facility – a situation which puts lives at risk,” the PPP said.

As though Guyanese have short memories, Norton accused the PPP/C government of politicising the Guyana Police Force, the party said adding that “perhaps he is oblivious to the numerous revelations coming out at the Commission of Inquiry of his party’s shameless use of police ranks during their attempt to subvert the will of the electorate during the 2020 General and Regional Elections, but rest assured Guyanese are not.”

The statement said that the PPP unequivocally condemns the vile, obnoxious, and religiously offensive tirade by Mayor Narine and the racist, obstructionist campaign by the Aubrey Norton-led APNU+AFC.

“The party further calls on Civil Society and other national stakeholders, as well as all patriotic Guyanese at home and abroad to condemn Mr. Aubrey Norton and members of his cabal, on this most vexing and worrying matter, and the subtle as well as overt messages of obstruction, religious and ethnic division,” the statement said.