PPP/C presidential candidate Donald Ramotar last evening declared that President Bharrat Jagdeo is one of the country’s most important resources and he would be utilizing his services if he acceded to the highest office of the land on November 28.
Ramotar was at the time speaking at a massive People’s Progressive Party (PPP) public meeting at Whim, Corentyne yesterday where thousands of supporters had gathered.
Whim is the birthplace of former PPP stalwart Moses Nagamootoo who is now campaigning for the Alliance For Change.
Jagdeo launched into a scathing attack on the man from Whim. He said Nagamootoo does not have the skill to run a cake shop and said he is “one of those people who can convince everybody in one day they can build a skyscraper but put them to run a country and they would mash it up.”
The supporters also joined Jagdeo and other party leaders, including Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee in a march from Tain with the party’s song ‘Dem a Watch Me’ in full blast.
The meeting was held in front of the home of herbal doctor, Veerasammy Ramayya and the street was filled to capacity.
The traffic was also stalled for a long time because of the huge crowd and even after they reached their destination, it still moved at a crawl.
During the meeting a small group of persons, including a boy who looked not older than 10, stood in a corner and displayed posters with AFC leaders and were shouting slogans like, “we want jobs” and “Ramjattan for president.”
Jagdeo said too that Nagamootoo has a long track record of lying and had lied that the late President Cheddi Jagan wanted him to be president.
He said too that Nagamootoo claimed that he left the PPP because the party is corrupt but yet he was struggling four months ago to be the leader.
He described him as an “egotist with an ego bigger than Whim” and said while the other candidates withdrew their candidacy in favour of Ramotar, Nagamootoo, whose role as Minister of Information was useless, could not accept that.
According to Jagdeo, every time Nagamootoo “did not get his way he walked away” and that “for the last 10 years he has not lifted a pin in favour of the PPP or the government…”
The president said too that Nagamootoo and Ramjattan are claiming that the government “screwed the sugar workers” but they have no respect for sugar workers. He pointed out that when the European Union slashed the sugar price by 36%, US$9m was lost.
According to him, every Caribbean country decided to get out of sugar but his government said that sugar was important for Guyana and that without the PPP government, sugar would have been dead.
He told his supporters that since moving into office the PPP has been fighting hard to move the country forward.
He said this was in spite of the difficult past that the PNC left them and in spite of the fact that “at every occasion they get they pull us down but we are made of stronger stuff and we have a strong goal, a strong vision of what we want to do.”
He said too that his party is strong and resilient and “we would face any challenge – AFC, PNC/APNU and we have dealt with many of them along the road and we have disposed of them and come November 28 we would dispose of them once again…”
He lamented too that “from the beginning the PPP never lost an election. The PNC stole it from us but we never lost it… The PNC, disguised as APNU has given them a bankrupt and corrupt country.”
He said that Ramotar who “grew up in the party” and “understand the meaning of struggle” is the only person to take the country forward.
Ramotar was there when many of the PPP members were beaten and harassed because of their political views.
According to him, Ramotar was struggling to bring freedom to the people while “on the other hand APNU presidential candidate David Granger participated in another type of struggle, a struggle to take away our rights, our freedom.”
AFC Leader Raphael Trotman also came in for his share of bashing with Jagdeo saying that “Trotman was in the PNC through all the difficult years when they were beating people in Georgetown; when they were supporting the criminals…”
He said too that Trotman was “part of the PNC apparatus that felt that if they could not dispose of the PPP through elections then they must dispose of us through street protest.
According to him, Trotman only left the PNC recently because he couldn’t become leader when he contested the elections and lost.
To loud screams from the large gathering he said they had just handed out the first set of laptop computers, keeping to their promise that was made two years ago for every family to have a computer.
By the end of the year, he said 57,000 families would have a computer while they are securing the money to purchase the remaining 33,000 computers next year. He told them that the people from Whim and sugar workers would get the computers too.
He said the PPP is about progress and spoke about the building of the Berbice Bridge and the University of Guyana, Berbice campus and about paving the road.
He also spoke about government’s major investment in the Skeldon Sugar Factory where US$200M was spent. “But we don’t sit on our hands,” he said. “We don’t gloat about these things” because of plans for other investments in Berbice like the deep water harbour, the ICT connectivity, ensuring more jobs and the best quality education in the world and connecting our people to the internet so that they can access services in Georgetown so that they do not have to travel there.
He said the opposition does not have any plans or vision for the future because Ramjattan only understands “cockeye economics…”
The President launched severe attacks against Dr Ramayya, Sasenarine Singh, Robert Badal and Rajendra Bissessar.
Ramotar congratulated Jagdeo for the tremendous work he has done and said he is “not going to disappear in the sunset… Jagdeo is one of the most important resources that the country has and I am going to use him.”
He said the PPP would modernize and expand the sugar industry and has done everything to save it and have added value with the co-generation, the packaging plant and would continue to work to have more refined sugar.
He said government has already invested heavily in electricity and when the country has hydro the bills would be cut significantly. More importantly, he said they would be able to do more processing and manufacturing “so that we can grow from strength to strength.”
According to him, when the PNC was in government they spent more money in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs than in the other ministries including education, health, agriculture. He said they “wanted to tell the outside world that everything was good in Guyana when we were having malnutrition and beri-beri…”
He pointed out that since they came into office they had built more than 1,000 schools and gave the children school uniforms and meals and text books and the students are excelling.
