Jagan urges support for Coalition

Former PPP Member of Parliament and son of that party’s founders, Dr. Joey Jagan last week urged US-based Guyanese to get on their phones and encourage their relatives here to vote for the Coalition at the upcoming elections.

Dr. Jagan was at the time addressing a rally held in Brooklyn, New York by the PNCR’s North American chapter, at which Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Karen Cummings were also slated to speak.

Dr. Jagan, a dentist by profession, said that with President David Granger at the helm, Guyana is on the right track. He noted that since the arrival of ExxonMobil on these shores, the tourism sector is on the rise. To loud cheers from those in the audience, he said tourism will bring Guyana wealth. “God is smiling on us now,” he said, “but we must follow what Mr Granger has said and embrace the concept of the private sector being the engine of growth.”

Dr. Jagan, who, from the very inception, had endorsed the Coalition for a second term in office, cautioned about having investors in the country whose interest is only in plundering Guyana’s natural resources. He singled out the Russian-owned RUSAL, which, according to him, has for 15 years been fetching out the country’s bauxite and “never gave us a cent.” Joey Jagan said, too, that under the PPP Administration, Scotland Yard, one of biggest crime-fighting agencies, was chased out of Guyana, and to compound it, there was the disrespectful behaviour where an American Ambassador was on his country’s independence day “cussed out” by Priya Manickchand the then Minister of Education.
While reminding the Guyanese-American audience that his father had formed a high-performing organisation, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), he said that that party has now become immoral. He then urged that come Elections Day, March 2, 2020, “You all should get on your phones early and encourage your respective relatives to go out and vote for the Coalition Government.”

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INTEGRITY IN PUBLIC OFFICE

Prime Minister Nagamootoo, for his part, told the gathering that there is need for integrity in public office, as discredited PPP Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali, who is currently facing 19 criminal charges for alleged fraud. Noting that the future of Guyana lies in a coalition government, the Prime Minister cautioned that decisions being made must be for the good of the country, and should be done collectively. According to the Prime Minister, the coalition government headed by President Granger believes strongly in integrity, and that as such, all Ministers of Government are subjected to a higher standard. “There must be integrity in public life, and you have to live with the laws you make. And the laws must apply to everyone… When we got into office, the first thing we did was to introduce integrity legislation; we re-constituted the integrity commission,” he said, adding: “I introduced a Code of Conduct for ministers, and those who benefitted from the public purse, and set out what those codes should be; what gifts they should receive; their relationship with persons who investing in the country.”

GUYANA CHAIR G77

Minister Cummings, in her remarks, took the opportunity to inform the audience of Guyana’s assumption of the chairmanship of the G77 and Guyana’s responsibility. She told the gathering that Guyana received the full and unequivocal support of CARICOM, and the vast majority of the countries in Latin America, Asia and America. Of Guyana’s chairmanship, she said it represents a rare alignment of global observances and opportunities, as well as it coincides with, among others things, the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations; the convening of the Third South-South Summit; the Golden Jubilee ( 50th Anniversary) of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana; the 10-year push for acceleration of the implementation of the UN-led Sustainable Development Goals and the critical meeting of climate change, trade and reforms to the global development system.

Chairman of PNCR’s North America Region (NAR) Errol Lewis told the gathering that hosting the rally was necessary to demonstrate the group’s support for the Coalition government. He said that from his new home in the United States, he “watched the struggles of my people, and more importantly the people of Linden, as they were ostracised, victimised and demonised on every front. An entire community; their crime was being a PNC stronghold.”
Continuing, he spoke of the corruption within the Guyana Police Force (GPF) under the PPP, and wondered aloud how any government could have allowed such to occur in a law-enforcement organisation. “My advice to all of you here this evening is that we must not go back,” Lewis said.

Meanwhile, Political Activist Rickford Burke, in publicly saluting the prime minister for his decades of dedicated service to the people of Guyana, reminded the gathering that the PM was formerly a member of the PPP but has put people above politics, and joined the Coalition to ensure that the people of Guyana have a good life. Noting that the Coalition is united and is a family, even though it has had some challenges, Burke, too alluded to the achievements made since 2015. “In the last four years, the Government had made education a priority; it has been rehabilitating schools throughout the country. The President initiated the 5Bs Initiative, which saw more children going to school, and Guyana having performed the best in the Caribbean at CXC,” Burke said, adding that in the last budget, $52B was plugged into the education sector, the highest amount ever.