Dr. Jagdeo says; condemns major attempt to rewrite history

THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, rubbished what he described as “shameless” attempts to rewrite history and accuse the PPP/C Government of not having a clear developmental plan, despite the evident progress.

Dr. Jagdeo made these remarks during a press conference at Freedom House, where he highlighted the inaccuracies outlined in a Kaieteur News “Peeping Tom” column, which was titled: “The PPP/C has never endorsed a national development strategy.”
Contrary to the claims in the column, according to the General Secretary, unlike the PPP/C, many of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC)’s ideas were disjointed and could not be supported by rigorous economic analyses.
Dr. Jagdeo related: “APNU has been struggling to find its footing, largely, when confronted with the core questions [such as] whether they have a plan for the development of Guyana.”
Pondering on the hundreds of taxes “strapped to the backs” of Guyanese citizens by the APNU+AFC, he said: “It was the most rapid period of escalation of tax collections in the country in those five years, and this did not come from economic growth [or] expansion of the economy because the fact is that many sectors in the economy shrunk, it came [from] the additional taxation.”

Although the coalition government promised jobs, Dr. Jagdeo said the nation, during the period 2015-2020, saw a loss of over 30,000 jobs.
“They had no plan at that time,” he maintained, noting that the Kaieteur News article ignored those facts and tried to paint a bad image of the PPP/C Government.
“So clearly, there is a major attempt to rewrite history, through these documents that surface [Peeping Tom],” Dr. Jagdeo said.

DEVELOPMENT
Reflecting on the work done by his party throughout Guyana’s history, he pointed to how the then PPP government acted swiftly to create a plan to lower poverty after being shocked by the poverty rate in 1992.

As an outcome of that effort, the National Development Strategy (NDS) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) were developed in conjunction with the 1999 Business Summit. But there are other PPP approaches to poverty reduction besides the PRS; those important policy tools include the NDS and the LCDS 2030 (Low Carbon Development Strategy).
“We know how far we have come as a country,” he remarked, noting that the PRS addressed the troubling situation at that time in the country’s history.
Although the “Peeping Tom” article sought to be biased and ‘prop up’ the opposition by boasting about the Green State Strategy created by Former President, David Granger, the PPP General Secretary said it did not pose a sustainable future for Guyana because it failed to grasp what is development.

“This is the delusion in the PNC. They have no plan,” Dr. Jagdeo said while affirming that the country cannot be run on “wishy-washy” positions.
With Guyana’s economy finally being revived, Dr. Jagdeo highlighted some of his government’s initiatives that have put forth brighter days.
“Over 50,000 more of these ordinary people are working now than were not working under APNU,” he said.
Dr. Jagdeo also reflected on initiatives such as the restoration of the “Because We Care” cash grant; increase in on-age pension, which sees pensioners receiving $14.5 billion more; thousands of persons finally having a plot of land and many low-income earners owning core homes.