–Dr. Jagdeo tells Opposition

THE stench of “desperation” emanating from the People’s National Congress-Reform (PNC-R) disguised as the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), has been aired out by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who shed light on the “true nature” of the Opposition.

Although having dealt with this matter extensively, the Opposition continues to issue press statements which are attempting to portray the idea that Indigenous communities are being left on the back burner.

During a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Thursday, the PPP General Secretary said: “I dealt a lot with this issue here, because I wanted people to really understand the true nature of PNC and their desperation.”
He added: “I saw they issued a statement from Region One; everything under the sun is wrong. But if we’re so bad, and they’re so great, people would recognise it and show up to their meetings… The people in Region One remember what happened under APNU; the vilification of Amerindian communities, calling them greedy, taking away their workers…”
The PPP General Secretary further noted: “All those things people remember. It’s not so far back, so you can issue 100 press statements about Region One, it’s not going to change how people view you in those areas.”

‘SHAMELESS’
Last week, Dr. Jagdeo pointed out that even with a track record of placing Amerindians on the back burners of development, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton “shamelessly” rolled out election promises to several indigenous communities.

Dr. Jagdeo, while staying committed to his promise of not allowing the 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. Never mind 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 said.

Further, he highlighted that unlike APNU, which cut the budget for roads, the governing PPP/C administration has made tremendous investments within this area.
The PPP General Secretary said that from 2020 to now, 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,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

As Dr. Jagdeo examined the extensive list of promises made by the APNU, he touched on the Opposition’s promise of job opportunities.
“Now, this was the group that took away nearly 2,000 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 targetted some 2,000 youths between the ages of 16-40 in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
YEAP was part of the then PPP/C Government’s commitment to youth development and advancement, and investment in the lives of the Indigenous Peoples. Further, the incumbent PPP/C 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,” Dr. Jagdeo said, 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, he cautioned Guyanese about these tactics being deployed by the Opposition as elections draw near.