-President Ali highlights one-sided nature of U.S. ‘fact-finding’ group

STOMPING out claims of discrimination and attempts to divide the nation, President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, has stated that he will not rest until all of Guyana is united.

His statement is in response to the group of American politicians who are currently in Guyana on an alleged “fact-finding” mission and are causing many to raise their eyebrows at the nature of the visit.

“We are working for results. I will not rest until this country is united,” the Head of State said on Saturday during a press conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

Former Chair of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, Dee Dawkins-Haigler, the founder of a group that calls itself the Organisation of World Leaders (OWL), is leading a delegation in Guyana to investigate claims made by Opposition members of discrimination and racism.

President Ali confirmed on Saturday that when these allegations were put to him by Dawkins-Haigler, he guided her to reports such as the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 2020 General and Regional Elections and even invited her to examine the three branches of government. But according to the President, Dawkins-Haigler said it was ‘propaganda.’

Stunned by the language used in the delegation’s press release, Dr Ali said he found it “dishonorable” that the statements were never corrected.
“Like an open book, the cover was blown open,” the President stated while explaining that upon their arrival in Guyana, the delegation’s true intentions were revealed.
Speaking on the recent meetings that the group has already conducted, he said only engaging with a handful of citizens is very telling.

On Friday, concerned residents of Linden voiced that they felt shunned when they tried to speak at one of the delegation’s meeting.
Exposing the one-sided nature of the group, the President asked why the Opposition was not evaluated by the U.S team, owing to their actions while in office, including then termination of thousands of sugar workers.

In 2017, the former APNU+AFC Coalition Government had announced the closure of several sugar estates across the country, leaving thousands of persons without jobs or sources of income. The move saw four sugar estates being closed and over 7,000 sugar workers losing their jobs.

Highlighting the slew of taxes burdened on the backs of Guyanese by the previous coalition government, President Ali then posed the question: “Are they examining the more than 200 taxes that were imposed on Afro, Indian and Amerindian people in this country by the last government that we [PPP] removed?”

Since assuming office, tax reforms have formed part of this current government’s wider agenda to improve the quality of life in Guyana and address immediate economic challenges that affect Guyanese.

These include the removal of VAT from water, electricity, building and construction materials, basic food items and household necessities.

“This is not magic,” the Head of State said while underscoring that development is at every corner of Guyana and it is because of his administration’s hard work and dedication.

“This nonsense got to come to an end, where every Tom, Dick and Harry feel they can come and evaluate us,” the President stated while stressing that he is putting an end to the attempt to divide the nation.

The group has been shunned by the government because of alleged ties to activist and hardline PPP/C critic Rickford Burke and his organisation, the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID).

During the month of September, 2023, Burke organised a so-called “Conference on Guyana” in Washington, DC, to which the Government of Guyana was not invited, but which was attended by members of the opposition.

The one-sided engagement presented the platform for opposition members to spew concocted and fabricated narratives about the Government of Guyana, including their usual diatribes about racial discrimination and extra-judicial killings, without utilising any fact-checking mechanism and without the government being afforded a hearing or an opportunity to respond.

It was after this conference was held that the group decided to visit Guyana on a ‘fact finding’ mission.