[www.inewsguyana.com] – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) Coalition have called out the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) on what it says is “intellectual bootlegging” following the launch of the PPP campaign song.
“The PPP, on the evening of Wednesday March 18, released their campaign song titled “IT IS TIME” which shamelessly copies the APNU+AFC campaign slogan,” the APNU+AFC said in a statement.
The slogan for the APNU+AFC coalition is “It is time.” According to the media release, “even the PPP has recognized that IT IS TIME for change and is singing the tune along with the Guyanese people.”
The coalition says it welcomes the PPP to the movement of change which it says is taking Guyana by storm.
“The coalition however also recognizes that the PPP has also once again demonstrated that it is bereft of ideas and lacks originality. This, the Coalition believes, is a pattern of behavior which has become synonymous with the PPP,” said APNU+AFC Chief Communications Officer, Imran Khan.
The coalition pointed out another case where the PPP in its opening campaign infomercial featuring Donald Ramotar, the PPP copied, wholesale, a presentation by US President Barack Obama “and was widely shamed and mocked when this was exposed. Then Ramotar’s son, Alexei Ramotar squatted on APNU+AFC internet domain names. The PPP then went on to copy the Move Forward (as developed and promoted by Youth Moving Forward) and Vote Like A Boss (as developed and promoted by Guyana National Youth Council) slogans for their social media efforts.”
According to Khan, “The PPP is engaging in a campaign of intellectual bootlegging.”
“This is wholesale copying, quasi-plagiarism and pilfering of ideas and slogans speaks to the PPP being bankrupt when it comes to intellectual capacity, creativity and originality. And it comes from a party which was belligerent and vociferous in its attempt to defend plagiarism, a position from which it had to recant after being widely condemned,” Khan added.
APNU+AFC believes that the behavior of the PPP is a pattern which has a history of showing scant regard for the laws of Guyana.
