Member of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Debra Backer told supporters on Saturday evening that it is time for the PPP to step down and give another party a chance to serve.
Speaking at a public meeting at Rosignol, she said the government has a duty to keep its citizens secure and out of harm’s way but Guyana is the third highest in the Caribbean when it comes to crime and the second to last when it comes to development.
She said too that her party would significantly increase the salaries and improve the conditions of work of the disciplined services and would transform the Guyana Police Force, rebranding it the Guyana Police Service.
Speaking about pirates on the high seas, she said government gave the police a boat with a 40-horsepower engine while the pirates have faster engines. “How we gon catch them?” she asked. “It is not that anything is wrong with our policemen and women” they just need to be properly manned and equipped.
She said her party would accept foreign help to deal with security so that citizens would feel safer and investors would not be afraid to come.
She pointed out that the government likes to boast about building roads, schools and hospitals but questioned whether the opposition was supposed to do that, noting that they were doing so with taxpayers’ money.
Another member, Thakoor Singh said what the ruling PPP did for Guyana in 19 years in power is nothing compared to what the leaders of the PNC did.
He boasted about the development of the PNC and said that government built several banks, created the National Insurance Scheme, the Guyana Youth Corps, the People’s Militia, the Teacher’s Training College, the University of Guyana, the two technical institutes in Georgetown and New Amsterdam and the Critchlow Labour College.
He said too that the PNC developed several housing schemes around the country and also gave free water supply to residents. The quality of water from the taps now is terrible, he said.
Singh also stated that the PNC built the sea and river defences, drainage and irrigation projects such as the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary scheme as well as the access roads for farmers to bring out their crops.
He also mentioned that other places were built in support of agricultural development like the Black Bush Polder project.
According to Singh, the PNC also built the Demerara Harbour Bridge “where you cross for next to nothing” and the Canje Bridge as well as a number of factories include Colgate and Lidco [milk] and they also assembled Tapirs.
He said the PPP was having “sweetheart deals” and “contemplating building Marriot Hotel for US$20 million of your money without consultation with the stakeholders and without having a feasibility study.”
He railed against the Amaila Falls project and said “that is another rip off … That man [Fip Motilall], don’t know anything about road work… ”
The Alliance For Change also came in for its share, with Singh saying that the members were a pack of “opportunistic individuals. They would behave just like the PPP [if] they go into office and squander our resources.”
According to him, AFC member, [Dr. Veerasammy] Ramayya and his clique would only offer frivolous excuses to this nation and that he [Ramayya] is “saying something different from [Raphael] Trotman. What sort of nonsense is this?”
He said all the AFC wants is power and then the members “would behave worse than what [President Bharrat] Jagdeo is doing to this country; these cabals.”
Also addressing the small gathering was Adrian Wade, who told the supporters that the future of the country lies in their palm [referring to the party’s symbol]. He said if the PPP wins the “rich would become richer and the poor would become poorer.”
