Dear Editor,
FOR those who do not know and for those who may have forgotten, it is an opportune moment to remind all and sundry that, “The PPP didn’t begin with money, but with meaning.”
The Father of the Nation, Dr Cheddi Berret Jagan, birthed a party that was built to uplift the people of then British Guiana, who were poor peasants, pulverised and plundered as the under-privileged and perceived as pariahs, partitioned as non-participants alongside an assumed “higher echelon.”
Yes, the British once ruled with a “divide-and-conquer” policy, trapping, caging and using Burnham and his PNC, as the new master and the political medium to prevent Jagan from governing this nation.
The UF, the AFC and WIN share a destructive commonality consisting of a devious denominator – to disturb, disable and disrupt the PPP/C’s dynamic domain which is so dominant and diversified.
When Peter d’Aguiar from the UF party and Burnham from the PNC party collaborated to oust Dr Jagan in 1964, Jagan handed over British Guiana to Burnham with a healthy GDP of US$300 per capita. For 28 years, the PNC destroyed Guyana and when the PPP regained control of the economy in 1992, the GDP had pilfered down to US$250 per capita.
The PNC had reduced Guyana to an embarrassing position as the second poorest nation in this hemisphere, ahead only of Haiti.
Guyana realised zero growth during 1964 and 1992. In comparison, Barbados grew by 1,100 %, Trinidad by 400%, Jamaica by 260% and yes, Haiti, by 400%.
With the help of the US and the Carter Center, the PPP was able to contest the first fair and free election which they won to harness the administration of Guyana from a dictatorship.
Under astute management, from 1992 to 2010, Guyana’s GDP flew from US$250 to over US$2,500 per capita. Guyanese reclaimed their pride from being a least developed, bankrupt nation to a middle-income country.
When the PPP/C departed in 2015, it left the PNC with a GDP of US$5,580 per capita. In 2020, the PNC/AFC barely moved the GDP to US$6,775 after a five-year hiatus in office when they plundered and pulverised the economy with corruption, devastation and demoralisation.
After the PNC and the AFC made a valiant attempt to rig the elections again in 2020 but failed, the PPP/C was successful in winning a free and fair election to once again lead the nation to prosperity.
In his first term in office, President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has catapulted this country as the fastest-growing economy in this hemisphere, with the support of his entire Cabinet composed of immaculate, intelligent and industrious members. Guyana’s GDP for 2025 is projected to be US$32,330 according to the IMF.
Guyanese luck has changed from the impoverished PNC dictatorship which led Guyanese to be poverty stricken, to the affluent PPP/C dictum which has influenced Guyanese to enjoy the opulence of a healthier and higher standard of living.
President Ali and the PPP/C have added money, meaning and merit to the lives of Guyanese, both at home and abroad, over the past five years with initiative, intuition and innovation without imitation, to be the incumbent leader of this nation for a well-deserved second term.
Yours respectfully,
Jai Lall.