Vice President and General Secretary of the PPP/C Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday told challengers of the governing party that they need to “come right” as Guyana approaches the next general and regional elections in 2025.
The PPP/C and its supporters were gathered yesterday at Babu John, Port Mourant, where the yearly remembrance for former president and founder of the PPP/C Dr.Cheddi Jagan was held.
Jagdeo, who delivered the feature address, said, “This country can never develop fully, can never meet its full potential unless all of its people benefit from the progress, that is people from every race, every religion.”
He stressed that his party remains faithful to national unity pointing out that they are very fortunate to have had the founder of the PPP/C Dr Cheddi Jagan lay out a philosophy that has been maintained by successive leaders of the party. He stated that President Irfaan Ali is the latest in the line of leaders who has done so.
Quoting Jagan, Jagdeo said, “We have to remain faithful to national unity and bringing our people across races together.” He said the PPP/C remains committed to this. “We understood that. We have lived that in every single PPP government,” he added.
Turning his attention to the challengers of the PPP/C, Jagdeo said that the level of consciousness among citizens must be raised as the dupers are back at work promising the “moon and the stars. You got all kinds, some who are trying to challenge us but they better be cautious. They got to come right. It’s a free country politically, but they may have interpreted our being quiet as a sign of weakness. It’s not so. When the right time comes, we will deal with them.”
Jagdeo who also lashed out at the APNU stating that its only tool to mobilize people was “racism”.
“They say that they are in favour of Afro Guyanese but Afro Guyanese are some of the worst treated people in the five years they were in office.
“They don’t love Afro Guyanese, its elitists, the few of them like some of the ministers were getting all the sweets, they got the scholarships, they got the land, they got the contracts… This is what happened, the people of the country suffered,” Jagdeo said to the crowd which screamed in agreement.
In contrast, he said that if one were to look at the gathering and other PPP/C activities then the image was clear, and “that is the worst nightmare for APNU that all of our people right across Guyana in spite of their race they are benefitting from the People’s Progressive Party… That’s a fundamental difference between us.”
He told the gathering that APNU was not fighting for the betterment of the country and its citizens. “The only party you can find a home” in” which will ensure that every citizen sees sustainable progress is that of the PPP/C, he said.
Jagdeo added that it was important to fight the lies coming from the APNU/AFC. He reminded that before 2015, the APNU would send members of the AFC to Berbice to tell citizens that the then PPP/C government was doing everything for the “Afro Guyanese in Region 10, they are neglecting you who are supporters of the PPP”, while APNU went to Linden to tell the residents that the PPP/C was doing everything for the “Indian people” in Berbice. He said that the opposition was back at it again, urging citizens to be mindful of this.
“The People’s Progressive Party has one message for all of Guyana,” Jagdeo stressed.
Stating that the country was not “flush with oil money”, Jagdeo said that Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton’s call to give $5 million yearly to every citizen makes no sense as that would be 20 times more than the revenue being earned currently from the oil and gas sector. Stressing that his party is made up of citizens from every race and religion in Guyana, Jagdeo said that their motive was to ensure that every citizen benefited from the investments being made to improve their livelihood.
