–Dr Jagdeo flays Opposition for attempting to encourage Guyanese to boycott flag-raising ceremony
ALTHOUGH Independence Day stands as a historic anniversary for all Guyanese, opposition operatives are seeking to politicise this significant celebration by urging citizens to boycott the flag-raising ceremony, which is set to be held in Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice) this weekend.
People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo flayed those detractors of development, and pointed out that this action is the “latest manifestation of their racism and victim mentality”.
During a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Thursday, he brought to light a flyer that has wormed its way into households throughout Linden.
The flyer contains “ten reasons” why the people of Linden and Region Ten should not support the Independence Day activity.
This sort of tactic does not come as a surprise to Dr. Jagdeo, as he highlighted: “I recall when it went to Essequibo, people from Linden; the executives of the PNC said, ‘Why take it to Essequibo? PPP is taking it to their support base.’ Now that it’s going to Region Ten, they’ve urged people not to attend.”
Further, while the government has injected tremendous investments within the region, the flyer says that despite a significant increase in the national budget allocation, the PPP has not completed any transformational projects within the region.
On that score, Dr. Jagdeo decided to highlight facts which state otherwise.
While the flyer says that the government has installed an “eight-member Board of Guardians (all Indians),” the PPP General Secretary stated that this is untrue.
While noting that it is not even eight but seven members, Dr. Jagdeo said that there are only two Indo-Guyanese on the Board.
“…They put in bracket all Indians; most people don’t know who the members of the Board of Guardians are. Just imagine if you live in Linden and you see this, you would actually think it’s true. The fact of the matter is that of the seven members, two are Indo-Guyanese; the rest are made up of Afro-Guyanese, people of mixed descent, and Amerindians,” he said.
The government had installed groups of persons that were specifically tasked with reviewing applications for public assistance within their respective catchment areas, and they are referred to as the “Board of Guardians”.
Another untruth was that the PPP was unable to complete the synthetic track.
Dr. Jagdeo explained that this project was a failure on the part of the APNU+AFC Government, and they were constantly deceiving Guyanese by claiming that the project would be finished by 2018. Then, when that deadline was missed, they then set it to 2019.
However, it was revealed that the synthetic material was never even paid for; that it was the PPP, which, upon taking office, pursued its completion, while developing other sports facilities within Region Ten.
“When we got into office, they didn’t even pay for the synthetic track. If you check the payment when it was done, it was done under this government… But we didn’t leave it at the synthetic track; we put in, on the same ground, FIFA-compliant lights, so you can play international football in that area,” he said.
He also said that two stands are being constructed, with one being $130 million and the other $150 million.
In response to that bold accusation by opposition operatives, the PPP General Secretary said: “They have a unique; an uncanny capability of not being able to complete anything. They can talk a lot but never could deliver on a real project.”
Responding to the claim that the government suspended the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) Board, Dr. Jagdeo said it was created when he was serving as Finance Minister, noting that the project was left on the backburners under the APNU+AFC administration.
“So, we left the LEN programme functioning; APNU bankrupt it,” he said, while listing other incentives that the PPP rolled out that bolstered economic growth within the region.
Additionally, he pointed out how the housing sector has seen new heights under the ruling PPP government.
“We got into government, we had to buy land, a plantation next to Linden on which we are doing 1,000 plots of land for the people of Linden. In Amelia’s Ward, another 400 lots… and we are spending nearly 600 million there…That’s 1,400 people who will get a plot of land or a core home from this government,” the PPP General Secretary said.
