–Jagdeo blasts APNU for its ‘hypocrisy’, highlights how PPP/C restored prosperity to Indigenous communities

EVEN with a track record of placing Amerindians on the backburners of development, Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton, has “shamelessly” rolled out election promises to several indigenous communities, according to People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, who placed the Opposition on blast for their “hypocrisy.”

During his weekly press conference at the party’s headquarters, Dr Jagdeo, while staying committed to his promise of not allowing the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) disguised as the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to inject untruths into the Guyanese people’s minds, reminded the population of what occurred under the previous coalition administration.

“Without any shame, Norton promised to empower the indigenous communities economically; he wants to make every Amerindian a contractor because the PPP only has a few contractors in these areas. Nevermind you don’t have contracts or allocation of government money to do these contracts, but he wants to make everybody a contractor,” Jagdeo said.

Referencing a news report in which Norton accused the government of “hypocrisy,” Dr Jagdeo poured cold water on this claim and pointed to evidence that places the shoe on APNU’s foot.
“The most hypocritical party that you could ever find in this hemisphere and maybe one of the most hypocritical parties in the world is APNU and they do this barefacedly,” the PPP General Secretary stated.

Further, he highlighted that unlike the APNU, which cut the budget for roads, the governing PPP/C administration has made tremendous investments within this area.

From 2020 to now, the PPP General Secretary stated that this government has allocated and spent approximately $30 billion on mining and connecting internal paved roads.

This expenditure, according to him, does not take into consideration the billions spent to upgrade other hinterland roads.

“So, this is a party [APNU] that cut the allocation for roads in the hinterland and they didn’t cut it from 2015. You recall that when they had the one-seat majority in 2012, from 2012 to 2015, they cut all the hinterland allocations by nearly $90 billion; for roads, hinterland airstrips, almost everything to do with indigenous communities. But he [Norton] goes there again to say ‘We’ll build more roads in your communities’.”

In the villages of Mabaruma and Port Kaituma, the PPP/C government is spending nearly $600 million to do about three kilometres of internal roads and according to Jagdeo, maybe another $400 billion to do about another two kilometres of internal roads in those same places.

As Dr Jagdeo examined the extensive list of promises by the APNU, he touched on the Opposition’s promise of job opportunities.

“Now, this was the group that took away nearly 2000 jobs from Amerindian communities, $700 million lost in stipends for those people that lost jobs,” Dr Jagdeo reminded the public while pointing out that it was the ruling PPP/C that rehired those 2,000 workers and even increased the number to 2,700.

The Community Services Officers (CSOs) initiative was launched in 2014 under the Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Programme (YEAP). It targeted some 2,000 youths between the ages of 16-40 in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.

YEAP was part of the then PPP/C Government’s commitment to youth development and advancement, and investment in the lives of the Indigenous People.

Further, the current government has expanded business opportunities for Amerindians.

“We have allocated, through the LCDs, $22.5 billion for one year alone. This year, there’ll probably be another allocation, that’s probably more than APNU allocated in five years of projects in these areas,” adding that four state-of-the-art hospitals are being built within the hinterland area and the land titling project progresses under the PPP/C.

Further, Dr Jagdeo cautioned Guyanese about these tactics being deployed by the Opposition as elections draw near.

“I had warned that this will happen as we get closer to the elections, you’re going to have a whole slew of promises again, similar to 2015…. with them having no credibility or intention of fulfilling their promises,” Dr Jagdeo firmly stated.