Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee has accused the opposition of being hypocritical in its support for the disciplined services in a last minute bid to win the votes of the approximately 7,000 members who will go to the polls tomorrow.
He was speaking at a PPP/C public meeting held at Independence Boulevard in South Georgetown last night. Preceding him were Presidential Adviser on Empowerment Odinga Lumumba and Steve Ninvalle.
“The Alliance for Change (AFC) and the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) never congratulated the Joint Services in Parliament,” he said. “It is important that when these matters come up in Parliament that the [joint services] are supported. We in Guyana must convey our support and sympathy for them. [The opposition] never did it but they want the votes now,” Rohee said. “These people are hypocrites. I do not use the word APNU. They are the same PNC,” he added.
The Minister also spoke of a letter that PPP/C presidential candidate Donald Ramotar wrote to the members of the joint services outlining the support to them in the past years and seeking their vote at the polls.
Rohee spoke of the session in Parliament when Debra Backer of the PNCR-1G made a remark that Guyanese soldiers torturing persons and called this an example of the way the opposition treated the joint services.
In light of recent criticisms, the Minister said that there are ongoing reforms of the Guyana Police Force.
He said that while there will be positive and negative sides to the Joint Services, the opposition places its focus on only the negative.
Rohee believes that it is because the opposition is afraid of losing support in traditional stronghold places that it is on a misinformation campaign to make the government look bad.
Ninvalle, who served as a parliamentary secretary in the last Parliament, told the residents of Albouystown that he came to them with a message of peace and love. “I come to you with a simple request: that you join us in this PPP/C A-team,” he said, so that the party could “go forward with another resounding victory.”
He told the residents that they have suffered a lot of discomforts under the previous administration. “We have been harshly treated. But after the PPP/C took office the country went from strength to strength,” he said.
He said that the residents must, like Janet Jackson, ask of the PPP/C, “What have you done for me lately?” He was confident that residents would be able to recognise what the government has done for them.
“You can wash away your doubts in the aquatic centre. You can see the schools that we built, the roads that we built, the hospitals that we have built,” he said.
“We need to be honest with ourselves. You the voter should be wise enough to pick the sense from the nonsense,” he said, criticising the opposition parties for making what he described as unrealistic promises in a bid to woo voters.
He said that the PPP/C government has been realistic in making its promises and it is for this reason that one could pick up the manifesto from the last elections and look at what has been fulfilled.
Lumumba urged the older folks to educate the younger ones about how life in Guyana was during the time of the PNC administration, which he characterised an era when there were blackouts “for two weeks” and no potable water.
Making a comparison of then to now, Lumumba said that this present government not only gives people house lots but also gives them the means to build a house.
He said that in the time of the PNC, persons had to squat and police gave them a hard time for doing this.
Lumumba spoke of the advances made in the health sector and pointed to the numerous of hospitals rehabilitated and built from scratch.
He also spoke of the progress made in education and continued to insist that under the PNC, “Guyana was the duncest country in the Caribbean.”
