-Dr Jagdeo says; highlights how country faced hardships because people took PPP for granted in 2015
-70,000-80,000 jobs restored to Guyanese since August, 2020

THE memory of Guyana’s economy being stagnant under the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is still burning in the minds of Guyanese who were hoodwinked by the party’s 2015 promise of a “good life.”

However, under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Guyanese are now living the actual “good life”, as according to the party’s General Secretary they have restored 70,000-80,000 jobs since entering office.

While presenting the General Secretary’s report on Saturday at the PPP’s 32nd Congress, Dr Jagdeo reminded the thousands gathered of the struggles they faced and what makes the PPP the ideal party to lead this country.

“…We took the economy where we had to use over 100 per cent of revenue to service debt, down to less than 10 per cent of revenue, so now we had 90 per cent of the revenue to spend back on our people…We restored a bankrupt country to financial solvency,” he said, while pointing out that in other countries, persons would get re-elected only on that metric.

Further, after the PPP/C government cleared the excessive debt that was left by the People’s National Congress-Reform (PNC-R) now disguised as APNU, they then embarked on an “unprecedented” programme through which spending on education, healthcare and housing was increased.

“We gave out over 100,000 house lots in a country where we had just over 250,000 households. Unbelievable! And I’m not going to trace that history because you know it,” he told the sea of red that withstood the sombre weather.

The PPP General Secretary then urged members to actively engage in the workshops that were being held in order to discuss their ideas, which will contribute to the party’s future growth.
“This party will take your ideas seriously,” he told the mammoth crowd.

He added: “We come to the congress to infuse ourselves with fresh ideas, to rekindle the enthusiasm, to draw on each other’s spirit and strength and that’s why with this large gathering here today [Saturday], we will leave here with a great momentum to go on to win the 2025 elections and continuing [sic] to lead this country.”

‘PPP TAKEN FOR GRANTED’
The quote: “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone,” pretty much sums up what lead to the PPP departing office in 2015.

After lifting Guyana off of its feet and placing it on the path to prosperity, this energy was lost, as according to Dr Jagdeo not only did the citizens take the PPP for granted, but the leadership within the party lost their appetite to remain in office.

And with APNU promising almost everything under the sun, many were hoodwinked into giving them a chance as the memory of that party’s nature in office was distant, especially for the generation of youths that grew up under the PPP and were not able to compare a life under APNU to a life under the PPP, Dr Jagdeo explained.

“By 2015, we’ve [sic] been in office for a long time so people took us for granted and even in our own leadership, I mean at every level, we started losing the hunger to remain in office. The hunger was not there.

“Secondly, we had a whole generation of young people that [sic] grew up only with the PPP in office. They never had a starting point; they couldn’t compare what life was under APNU. They did not know about the struggles of our fore- parents. They did not know about rigged elections. They did not know about people not having [anything] to eat in this country; foodstuff being banned. They did not know about the repressive nature of the army and others under APNU,” he said.

However, despite the series of manifesto pledges made by APNU, Guyanese did not obtain the promised benefits but instead saw hefty taxes being clamped on their backs.
“The miners who supported APNU overwhelmingly saw three new big taxes on them. They told the miners in 100 days we’ll remove all the taxes,” he said, while highlighting that the opposite actually happened.

“The reason I’m telling you this is because they’re at it again. New set of promises to the very people that they had destroyed. The indigenous people, they [APNU] gone back and talk about land rights after dismantling the land-titling unit and firing all the people. They’ve gone to Linden and said to people, ‘we’ll give you house lots and everything and jobs.’ Zero jobs in the past and they oppose the 1,200 part-time workers we have in Region 10,” the PPP General Secretary stated.

“We cannot go back to the lies of 2015,” he said, while urging party members to be vigilant against attempts to “distort” the PPP’s track record.

Further, he reflected on the complaints by Guyanese when the PPP was in office and the PPP General Secretary explained that the hardships were a result of bad policy-making.

He stated: “They were just collecting more and more through higher taxes and spending the resources on things that did not matter to people, that didn’t bring greater welfare to them. It was extravagance.”

Dr Jagdeo also reminded the mammoth crowd of APNU’s “vindictive campaign” when they hauled them in front of the courts.

As he extensively reflected on the fight to protect the nation’s democracy and the road to the no-confidence motion in 2018, the PPP General Secretary took time to thank those citizens who stood up even in the face of obstacles, in order to fight for what is right.

The people in 2020 went to the polls and peacefully gave a mandate to the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to govern.

Guyanese, however, after casting their votes, had to endure a five-month wait for the results of the General and Regional Elections as they witnessed alleged unlawful acts and a slew of legal challenges.
During this time, the patience of the electorate was tested, as electors observed what was described as attempts by the then APNU+AFC administration to rip the democratic fabric of the nation with “delay tactics” which were openly criticised by a wide section of society.

It was only after the legal challenges and international intervention that a national recount of all votes cast was convened and the figures showed that PPP/C received 233,336 votes, while the APNU+AFC Coalition got 217,920 votes.

REOPENING THE ECONOMY
Dr Jagdeo then pointed out that within the first two years in office, the PPP government had to protect its people while reopening the economy.

While President Dr Irfaan Ali stated that the government managed to create 60,000 jobs from 2020, Dr Jagdeo said that the President was modest in this figure.

The PPP General Secretary stated that in four years, they placed 70,000 -80,000 people back into the workforce to earn incomes to take care of their families.

Adding to this, he said that the PPP does not “wonder in the wind.”

“Every policy-making in the PPP is grounded on [not only] what is good for today but also sustainable tomorrow and in the future. That’s the only way you accumulate wealth in a country and remain relevant and ensure that the prosperity we work for could really be sustainable,” he explained.

Touching on the Opposition’s promises that they are currently peddling, Dr Jagdeo poked holes in some of these ideas and explained how many of them are not feasible.

“We can give cash grants too, but not to undermine work ethic. We prefer to fund more job opportunities. We prefer to help our children and pensioners, but for them [APNU], they want to give out every cash grant. They want to give out money we never collect as yet and will never collect when you hear the numbers,” he said.
Regarding the true nature of the opposition, Dr Jagdeo said: “Their posture is anti-national.”