The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is preparing to return to power at the next elections and will use the time between now and then to fix the things that led to it becoming the opposition and appeal to disaffected APNU supporters.
Speaking at the opening of the party’s three-day Congress at Cotton Field Secondary School on the Essequibo Coast,
Executive Member Bharrat Jagdeo urged members to work hard to return the party to power.
“We need to look at ourselves; two days we would have to talk about what went wrong and we must have an honest assessment. Then we can fix the problems that led us to opposition,” he said.
Without elaborating, Jagdeo, who is the Leader of the Opposition, added, “We know about the stealing, the stealing took place on a massive scale but that’s not the only reason we are in opposition today and we need to fix those too.”
He said that to rebuild the party, members could not be “trapped by an philosophy or anything of that sort. We cannot be trapped by historical notions about what path of development we must pursue…” However, he said, the party needed to remain true to its founding principles, and use the methodology that the late president Cheddi Jagan used to effect change.
He emphasized that this does not mean, “getting rid of the old people and bringing in the young people. How can we get rid of comrades who have given their lives for the struggle in this country?”
Speaking directly to the older members, he told them that they have a very important role to play and that is to encourage the young. The women, he said, also have an important role to play in the party.
Jagdeo encouraged the members to take the message to the villages across the country that the PPP/C is “open to people even if they have not supported the PPP/C in the past. We have to stop being exclusionary.”
He promised to treat everyone fairly, even disappointed APNU+AFC supporters as only then would they would have the moral right to fight discrimination.
If this is done, he said confidently, things are going to change and the PPP/C would resume office.
He said the PPP/C “has demonstrated a track record of progress. We have a plan that the first day we assume office, we are going to return to enhancing that progress…”
In almost every village, there is an educational facility and a health hub and many Amerindians are studying to be doctors and engineers, nurses and teachers, because of the PPP/C he stated.
Turning to the APNU+AFC government, he stated that it has allocated $150 million for the establishment of three new radio stations, and claimed that the one in the North Rupununi had announced that the General Secretary of the PPP/C was in jail and there would be fighting at the Congress. He told the party members from the Rupununi that by the time they leave the Congress they would be armed with enough information to point out the fallacies of those statements.
According to Jagdeo, the private sector knew this was the fastest growing economy in the Caribbean and one of the fastest in the western hemisphere for the past 10 years; the government was liberal and promoted investment.
The Opposition Leader told the large gathering that in 19 months of the current government, there has not been a single foreign investment and questioned how the country would provide jobs for people.
Also giving brief remarks at the Congress held under the theme ‘Strengthen the Party, Defend Democracy, Onward to Victory,’ were General Secretary Clement Rohee, Irfaan Ali, who spoke on behalf of the Progressive Youth Organisation; Indra Chandarpal of the Women’s Progressive Organisation, Komal Chand of the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers’ Union and Dharamkumar Seeraj of the Rice Producers Association.
The opening of the Congress, which was chaired by Pauline Sukhai, a member of the Central Executive Committee also had in attendance former president Donald Ramotar, former prime minister Samuel Hinds, former ambassador to India Ronald Gajraj, among others.
