“Mobilise…live, sleep, eat PPP/C for the next 40 days” – GS Jagdeo tells Berbice

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo today told supporters in Berbice to ensure they mobilise in the lead up to September 1 General and Regional Elections so that they can deliver the largest victory in the region for the party.

Speaking at the PPP/C’s massive rally at Albion Estate Road, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Jagdeo said no other political parties contesting the upcoming polls have anything to offer Guyanese.

To this end, he urge citizens to ensure they mobilise in the coming days so that the PPP/C can return to office and continue the development in Region Six and across the country.

“So, please be careful. Go to every community. Make sure that you remain mobilised. We have about 40 days remaining. I want you to live, sleep, eat PPP for the next 40 days. We have work to do. We have to get back into government. We haven’t been able to complete everything we wanted to the last few years,” the PPP General Secretary stated.

Promising more to come for all categories of citizens, Jagdeo declared, “In the next term for people in Berbice and across the country, we have to ensure they get more jobs, better-paying jobs. We have to ensure that the rice farmers and the sugar workers get support. We have to make sure that we get more loans to people who want to start small businesses in every one of your villages. We want to make sure that we have street lights and security cameras to fight against crime. We want to do concrete drains. We want to make sure that our communities are secure. We have to pick up the garbage better… We need to fix a lot of things in the future, but only one party can do that, and that’s the People’s Progressive Party.”

The General Secretary went onto point out that there is a deep-seated discrimination by the People’s National Congress-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) of the people in Region Six. This, he added, is reflected in their actions in government during 2015 to 2020, when the sugar estates in the region were closed and workers placed on the breadline.

Since returning to office, the current PPP/C has reopened one of the estates and rehired thousands of sugar workers in Berbice.

But Jagdeo warned that there is an even more sinister plan now afoot in the APNU camp.

“I want to talk about something that has always bothered me historically, it seems that deeply seated in the APNU is a prejudice against Region Six. Somehow, they believe that because it’s a PPP stronghold, they must make no investment in this region. Never mind, they get a lot of support from Region Six, like in New Amsterdam and many villages…”

“Rose Hall estate was closed. They sent home 7000 sugar workers. But if you think that was in the past, at their [campaign] launch…one of their speakers said, we will shut the sugar industry down and grow marijuana on the land. You heard them. That’s not 2020, that’s not 2015, that is a couple of weeks ago,” Jagdeo posited.

He added that even the 4500 part-time workers currently employed across Berbice are also under threat, with APNU already indicating that they would be fired should the Aubrey Norton-led party get into office.

“There’s an institutional discrimination in the PNC and APNU against people who live in Berbice. So, whether you’re from New Amsterdam or Liverpool or Manchester or Port Mourant or Albion… or Chesley or Black Bush polder, or anywhere else in this region, you have to understand what is at stake here, and that only with a PPP government can this region make progress,” Jagdeo declared.