President David Granger last evening announced plans for a squatter resettlement body as he sought to make his case for re-election to residents of Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), where he also touted conditional cash transfers for families with school-age children from oil revenues and access to farming lands for laid off sugar workers.
As was the case in other traditional PPP/C strongholds where the APNU+AFC has held rallies in the run up to the upcoming March 2nd polls, Granger emphasised the need for wresting control from the former governing party, which he said was weakening.
“Under Jagan, they got 72% of the vote in this region. Under Jagdeo, that went to 65%. The support is dropping. In regions Two, Three, Five and Six, the numbers are falling. The longer Jagdeo runs the PPP, the better it is for APNU+AFC. The PPP doesn’t have strongholds anymore,” he argued while addressing a huge crowd at the Leonora Track and Field Centre.
Granger declared that during the incumbent’s planned ‘Decade of Development,’ Guyana’s oil revenues will be used to provide housing, education and employment for “the ordinary people”.
Specifically, he promised a massive squatter resettlement programme, the conditional cash transfers for families, with school-age children and access to farming lands for laid off sugar workers.
By the time Granger took the stage, the crowd that appeared to have arrived in a celebratory mood, was overflowing with goodwill. The previous speakers, including three religious leaders, had delivered just the right balance of attacks against the main opposition and rhetorical phrases to stoke their excitement.
Chants of “Forward Ever, Backward Never” reverberated, while the baseline of Brandon Harding’s calypso rhythm found an answering bounce from gyrating waists.
Harding’s declaration that he was “supporting the coalition ’til the day I die” was matched and at times surpassed by the invocations of the three religious leaders, including Orlando Vasquez, who unleashed a prayer full of Pentecostal fervour. “In the name of the father! In the name of the Holy Spirit! Look to your brother to the left! To your sister to the right! And declare forward ever, backward never! Faith is action! I said faith is action! Say neighbour gimme pass! Somebody say forward ever, backward never! Forward! Forward! Forward! Forward in Jesus’ name! Amen!” he proclaimed just before Pandit Deodat Tillack declared that a vote for PPP/C presidential candidate Irfaan Ali was a vote for unrighteousness, which would devour Guyana’s riches.
‘No more squatting ’
It was clear that everyone gathered was expecting big things from their presidential candidate and he sought not to disappoint as he declared that once returned to power he would end squatting not just in Region Three but across all of Guyana.
“At Vreed-en-Hoop, you have Plastic City but there will be no more Plastic City…. I promise you on March 15, I will set up the Squatter Resettlement Commission. We will use our resources to eliminate squatting…No slums, no shanties, no squatting here in Region Three or anywhere in this country,” he announced to the enthusiastic approval of the crowd.
As the discordant notes of dozens of vuvuzela ripped through the air, the president in quick succession delivered two more promises to the crowd. He promised a state land resettlement commission to provide dismissed sugar workers access to land. “We care for workers but we can’t continue to produce sugar at that cost,” he offered as an explanation for the closing of the Wales Sugar Estate.
According to Granger, sugar is in trouble and the man who put it in trouble is the man who built a factory at Skeldon that no one can figure out what do with.
The Skeldon Sugar factory was built during the presidency of current General Secretary of the opposition PPP, Bharrat Jagdeo.
“Those [former sugar workers] who want to farm, will get to farm and those who want houses will get land for houses,” the president promised.
Critics have said that the Granger administration had several years to parcel out lands for laid-off Wales workers but did nothing for them and presented no alternative employment opportunities.
His final promise to the people of Region Three was a repeat of a promise made at Anna Regina on Wednesday to “pay every family who sends their child to school a cash transfer” from oil revenues.
It was the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), one of the smaller members of APNU, which first suggested that oil revenues be used for cash transfers to households. The party spent all of 2019 lobbying the other members of the coalition to include this measure in the 2020 manifesto. With a month to go before the general elections, APNU+AFC is yet to produce its manifesto.
Granger explained that under the Public Education Scheme Grant, these conditional transfers will augment the gains already realised through the Public Edu-cation Transportation Service, better known as the “Buses, Bicycle, Boats, Breakfast and Books programme.”
He stressed that there were already thousands of bicycles, 40 buses and dozens of boats operating within the various school districts and positively impacting academic results countrywide.
The president had barely left the stage when members of the crowd began enthusiastically celebrating these promised measures.
“I never feel so happy in all me life,” Andre Nedd told Stabroek News.
The father of four school-aged children said he was looking forward for “everybody to get a small piece from the oil money” and for them squatters to get land.
“A happy for them too,” he stressed.
Another attendee Naiomi Jones said that she too welcomed the promised relocation of squatters as her mother was squatting and the “place was not something nice.”
Other speakers at last night’s rally included Ministry of the Presidency Director General Joseph Harmon, who saluted Granger for his foreign policy, which has improved Guyana’s standing in CARICOM and on the world stage.
“We are at the top of our game…you have made Guyanese proud,” he declared, while Thandi McAllister championed the infrastructure development realised across the region over the last four years.
Regional Information Officer Ganesh Mahipaul, who also spoke, explained that in the absence of political interference the region’s security sector has been able to realise a decline in serious crime.
He also credited the current administrative with realising significant increases in the pass rate at both primary and secondary schools across the region. “All of the secondary schools in this region are enjoying a better pass rate following the guidance of David Granger,” he said.
