–President Ali says; highlights progress made by the PPP/C to rejuvenate, advance the country

THE People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) from its initial years in office and later under the guise of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition, acted like “vampires,” sucking the life out of the people of Guyana and bleeding the country’s economic sectors dry due to the party’s poor planning and policies.

President, Dr Irfaan Ali urged Guyanese not to be misled by “doomsayers” and “hypocrites” who are ignoring the facts related to the PNC’s performance and now spreading “lies” about the work being done by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) led government.

The Head of State made this appeal on Sunday during a speech to a large gathering at Babu Jaan, Port Mourant, East Berbice-Corentyne, where he paid tribute to the founding leaders of the PPP/C.

Examining the period 2015-2020, he said that due to the coalition’s lack of foresight and poor decision-making, essential services such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure deteriorated during those five years.

The result was an increasingly impoverished population that struggled to access basic necessities, Dr Ali said, adding that the PNC’s corrupt practices and favouritism towards certain individuals and groups only exacerbated the situation.

He related that under the PPP/C, minimum wage in this country increased by 1,577 per cent, which is in keeping with the legacy of Dr Jagan.

“I saw between 1993 and 1995, minimum wages increased by 100 per cent, when I looked into that mirror between 1991 and 2014, I saw external debt reduced by 50 per cent. When I looked in that mirror between 1991 and 2014, I saw a debt-to-GDP ratio moving from 677 per cent to 34 per cent, that is the legacy that we celebrate, that is the legacy,” the President said as he reflected on the works of the PPP/C.

Under the PPP/C, the Head of State said that infant mortality for every 1,000 babies that were born between 1991 and 2014 was reduced by 47 per cent, along with the number of doctors for every 10,000 persons moving up to 600 per cent. The education sector’s share in the national budget was moved from two per cent to 15 per cent during that period
“Why the doomsayers don’t write about this? Why do they avoid these facts? Because they only have one intention, and that is political power by any cause,” Dr. Ali said.

He went on to say: “I want to tell you what I see as the year progressed, I saw 2015 and 2019 appearing before me, the years that the PPP/C was out of government. The mirror was speaking to me, and the mirror said, between 2015 and 2019, I saw sugar production declining by $21 billion.

“These guys [APNU] closed the sugar estates, and today, they have the audacity to sit in a hotel and to write banners saying, “give more to the sugar workers” when they completely destroyed the sugar estate in less than five years. The mirror said to me, “Where is the conscience of these hypocrites?” And then I said to the mirror, they are hypocrites; they don’t have a conscience.”
President Ali said that under the APNU+AFC government, the forestry sector declined by $31 billion, bauxite declined by $9 billion, and the country lost $283 million in foreign currency earnings in those five years. But this was not the only damage inflicted on the Guyanese people by the coalition.

PLACED PEOPLE ON THE BREADLINE
The Head of State said there were great acts of discrimination by the APNU+AFC government during their tenure, especially when it fired over 7,000 sugar workers, and some 2,000 Amerindian Community Suppor Officers (CSOs), placing them on the breadline.

Additionally, the coalition introduced more than 200 new taxes, but are now calling for the removal of value added tax (VAT). According to the President, VAT revenue over that period, increased by 43 per cent and private consumption was “hunted” down.

“Private consumption in those five years was reduced by $77 billion, what that means is that people did not have money to spend. That is why shops were closing, markets were closing, [and] $77 billion that was available was no longer available in these five years to be spent because like vampires, they were sucking the sap out of the people of our country. This is the truth, this is their unavoidable truth that they don’t want to speak about.

“But in celebrating Dr Cheddi Jagan, we have to celebrate the progress and development of the PPP and what it has brought on the people of our country, and in understanding how important the contribution is, we have to understand the infliction on the people of Guyana when the People’s Progressive Party was out of office,” Dr. Ali said.
Now back in government after the 2020 elections, the President said that the party will not divorce the PPP from Dr. Jagan; this is reflective of the core values and principles dating back to their 1992 manifesto.

The manifesto spoke about food security, universal education, health, public infrastructure, and investment in human capital, which is still alive today in the PPP/C government.
President Ali emphasised that the party will always stay true to its founding principles and values, even as it reinvents itself to meet the demands of a changing world, but not straying away from Dr Jagan’s philosophy and principles.

In addition to these remarks, the President also spoke about the importance of investing in education, and creating job opportunities for the country’s youth.
He cited specific examples of successful initiatives that have been launched in recent years, and expressed a commitment to continue this work in the future.

One of those initiatives is the cash grant to parents of children attending school, which was introduced by the PPP/C to offset expenses associated with children attending school. However, this initiative was discontinued by the former APNU regime, and was recommenced when the PPP/C returned to office in 2020.

Under the 2023 budget, parents and guardians of 214,000 schoolchildren will now receive $40,000, which amounts to $8.6 billion.
According to the Head of State, the education grant, the income-tax threshold adjustment, the salary adjustment, and the expansion of the part-time job programme are part of the billions of dollars being put back into the pockets of people, as the government seeks to increase disposable income.

The PPP/C government also removed the 200 plus taxes and distributed $150,000 one-off fisherfolk cash grants and many more measures.
“We [PPP/C] restored for the sugar workers, we restored hope for the communities across the country,” the President said.