The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) today defended its leader, Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine against suggestions of impropriety related to his directorship of the company which was established to undertake improvement works on D’Urban Park. The WPA is a member of the governing coalition.
A release from the WPA follows:
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) offers its full and unqualified support to Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, our Member of the National Assembly, Cabinet, and Minister of Education, regarding the contrived attacks on him regarding the D’Urban Park Development Project. This project was established to support the celebration of Guyana’s Golden Jubilee. The President had indicated early this year that the Police and Fire departments had cautioned against the ceremonial activity, which was likely to attract around 30,000 participants being held at either the National Stadium or the National Park venues for security and safety reasons. Consultations were held with residents of the Durban Park community before it was chosen. The works at the D’Urban Park Project were executed in a phased manner, with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure helping to complete the latter stages of Phase I.
There is no evidence whatsoever of Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine failing to fulfill his duties as a representative of the Government on the Board of the Company established to initiate these works. The President himself had indicated this saying: “Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine was chosen as the Government’s representative on the Company’s Board”. He therefore held a fiduciary responsibility to the Government as a Shareholder.
The usual partisan band of sanctimonious, duplicitous, dishonest and self-promoting political parties, groups and individuals who vigorously and obsessively give knee-jerk support for serial white collar crimes of all types, are hinting at public malfeasance and misfeasance by Dr. Roopnaraine. In doing so, they shamelessly ignore that their own behaviours, ethics, and characters, as perceived by the public at large.
WPA feels confident that the public at large has seen through these detractors for what they truly represent, despite the virtues they preach presently to the public. They are living embodiments of serial apologists of serial white-collar crimes. And their actions lead to the suspicion that in attacking Dr. Roopnaraine and others, at heart they are defending their real self-interest, of sustaining unchallenged, white collar infractions against the public at large.