–PPP General Secretary affirms
THE target set by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) to uplift the lives of Guyanese through robust policies and programmes will not be challenged by a few alterations to their party’s constitution, PPP General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has said.

While he has clarified the matter of the “-isms” already, Dr Jagdeo used his weekly press conference at the party’s headquarters to fully shut down the untrue narratives surrounding the recent choice by the party to remove Marxism-Leninism from its constitution.

He clarified that no foreign investor has ever raised the ideology debate with the party.
The PPP General Secretary said: “So this was driven entirely by the party and so it has nothing to do with that. I think by now foreign investors and Guyanese, they understand one thing about the PPP and our government.

One is that we protect people’s investment. Two, our policies are predictable, that from the beginning there’ve been some common things that have defined us.”
According to him, the PPP has invested in the housing sector to enhance people’s lives, and as a result of that, Guyana’s landscape has transformed.

However, housing is not the only sector that has undergone a facelift under the PPP, as Dr Jagdeo pointed out that his party while in government has worked assiduously to bolster health, education, public service, etc.
Also, the PPP General Secretary said that the party is credible and has stuck to their word.

He related that socialism does not fit into what the PPP is trying to do and, therefore, the membership decided to remove it.
“So, it was not driven by any external demand or anything of that sort. It will not change the nature of who we are. We’re a working class party.

We say this unashamedly, we want to make sure that Amerindians who live in distant part of our country have the same healthcare as people on the coast, or whether you live in Berbice, it does not matter or in New Amsterdam you have a high-quality hospital there, just like you have in Georgetown,” the PPP General Secretary said.

Dr Jagdeo then went on to say: “Changing a couple of words in the constitution is not going to change who we are. We believe in freedom; freedom to associate, freedom to practice your faith and still be part of this party.”

FAIR AND EQUITABLE
Last week, the lengthy debate as to which traditional ideology is most suitable for Guyana was put to an end by the PPP, which has chosen the path of promoting a fair and equitable society while embracing ideological plurality, racial unity and religious harmony.
This was according to PPP General Secretary, during the party’s post-congress press conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, last Sunday.

During the press conference, he said: “There was a fundamental resolution that has been written about in the media… and this is the question of [the] removal of socialism and Marxism–Leninism from our constitution, and I must say that today we had the unanimous support when the question was put to amend the resolution to remove Marxism–Leninism from our constitution and to remove socialism from our constitution.”

Further, the PPP General Secretary said that Central Committee member and Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C had put forth the question to the full house as it relates to the removal of Marxism-Leninism and “not a single person was opposed.”

Dr Jagdeo then added: “So this is a unanimous decision of our congress but that does not mean that we give up on our history of our working class ideology.”
While reading a section of the party’s constitution, he said: “The party’s strategic objective is to create a fair and equitable society. This objective will find expression in the establishment of a national democratic state, which is already in our constitution that will embrace political and ideological pluralism.”

The PPP General Secretary added: “So what this means is that you can be anybody, you can be a person who believes in socialism, [a] third way, you can believe in capitalism but you have a place in the party. You can be a business community, you can be a worker, a farmer, a fisherman, a bauxite worker [or] you can be an intellectual; you will find a place and a home in the People’s Progressive Party.”

Further, Dr Jagdeo said that the party has replaced teaching its party members about Marxism-Leninism, which according to him is now an “alien concept” and instead they are educating members about the struggles, political philosophy, party’s founding principles, core values, history and achievements.