On the wings of a fiery address by Bartica businesswoman Kamal Persaud, APNU+AFC presidential candidate David Granger last night laid out a plan for the Region Seven township focused on massive infrastructure, bolstered security and better health care.
“Without Bartica and the Cuyuni/Mazaruni region Guyana cannot move forward”, Granger said.
It was APNU+AFC candidate George Norton who set the fiery tone for the rally as he spoke of the atrocities faced in the heath sector specifically for residents of Region Seven.
He announced that should the opposition alliance be elected to office they would ensure that the system for the procurement of drugs was transparent and scrap the current system where only New GPC has been pre-qualified to supply the public health system. The opposition alliance, he said, will also move immediately to establish the long sought Public Procurement Commission so that the drug pre-qualification process can be redone.
“We are saying as soon as we get into power we are going to stop this cabinet order and have the procurement procedure so that we can have the right and legal procurement of drugs,” he announced. He charged that since 2005 only one company has been supplying drugs to the health sector and it was time to change that.
His revelation was met with thunderous applause and shouts of “No more Bobby” from the audience. Norton also said that an APNU+AFC government will afford women access to public abortion clinics as he said it would eliminate mothers having to seek “bottom house and quack” redress.
“For too long we have people dying from improper healthcare…medical termination of pregnancy facilities should be present in every region in this whole country so a mother should not have to go and risk her life for something the government should provide for you the people,” he stated,
Prominent Bartica businesswoman Kamal Persaud took up where Norton left off and through grassroots dialect had a fiery, interactive exchange with the crowd.
“We are the forgotten. The PPP/C has forgotten Bartica … and our Amerindian brothers and sisters are suffering too, nah true?” she questioned to voluble replies of ‘Yes girl preach it, say um again and PPP forget we”, among other screams.
She started highlighting problems faced by residents of the region especially Bartica, pointing to the dilapidated and shoddy stelling that one sees first on entering the gold mining community.
“Look at the stelling! That stelling it disgraceful, a lie? Y’all could bruk yuh foot on that thing,” she declared. Her statement threw attendees into a frenzy as they screamed for her to continue addressing “we problems and thing”.
“They care about our gold but treat us as second class citizens …we constantly suffer blackouts we lose business, our kids cannot study. Now they promise our small miners (land), weh de small miners at? Y’all don’t frighten, speak out …When deh done give way y’all land and now promising that they will give lands to work your operations,” Persaud queried.
She made reference to persons who died because of a lack of adequate health services or who were improperly treated at the community hospital.
“We have a mother of three at 23 died because of a botched abortion, a 37 (year-old) mother of two because she was not diagnosed properly. One time fibroid, next time appendicitis. It was cancer,” she lamented.
She also spoke about the pothole-plagued roads, musing that abortions can occur on the roads easier than going to a health practitioner
“Look at my roads, we are one square mile, seven avenues and nine streets and we gat roads that worse than the bush”, she lamented.
APNU’s Presidential Candidate in his address told the crowd, estimated at six thousands of mainly residents of the community, that he heard their cries and will act on them.
To this end he announced that his party has developed a plan for the region.
“I want to see Bartica as the capital of this region …You must have good infrastructure, good stelling, good roads, good street lights and if you can’t get it from your Mayor you must get it from the RDC (Regional Democratic Council) that is what it is about…
The PPP is holding you back and we have to devise a plan to move Cuyuni/Mazaruni forward…just kick the PPP out,” he said.
“The first plan is to make Bartica safe …The police force needs to be better paid. F division must live here, police must be better paid so we have a security plan to make sure …all will be protected.
Second plan is that you have a highway. That Bartica-Potaro road will become a highway. You cannot develop this region without infrastructure …if you want to win the riches of this region you have to provide roads.
He emphasized education as a catalyst for holistic development, if you want to develop this region more quickly you have to solve the problem of education. Your economic plan is based on the resources you have right here,” he said.
