Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has contended that being poor is no excuse for looting and destructive behaviour.
His comments come in response to some individuals who sought to defend the actions of those who are charged for participating in the violent countrywide unrests that erupted on Monday, April 28.
Addressing the issue during a press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo made it unequivocally clear that poverty and marginalisation cannot be used to justify lawlessness.
“Another group within the Opposition is saying that the people who did this were disadvantaged and underprivileged people and that the failure to address them is somehow a failure of the PPP’s governance in office,” Jagdeo outlined, questioning “did this group of people who are now being defended by the Opposition, did they do this because of exclusion from society?”
The Vice President contended that the issue of poverty in the country has to be examined from a historical context.
“The Peoples National Congress…have had control of this country, they ran this country for more than half of the period since independence. They had 28 years in office, then they had another three years from 2011/2012-2015 when they controlled the Parliament and then they had five years as a government. So, what did they do for underprivileged people and poor people?”
Jagdeo highlighted that it was under the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) administration that the lives of citizens started to improve.
“By 2015, we had a growing middle class of people of every race, in fact, a fairly large middle class…we had people starting to get wealthy again, we had fixed the finances of the country, made it solvent again. So that was the record of our 23 years in office,” he outlined.
“Then [PNC] got back into office [for] five years, where was Nigel Hughes and Cathy Hughes? In their press conference, they’re talking about these people being dispossessed and that is why they behave in that criminal manner, but what were they doing? Cathy Hughes was a minister, Nigel Hughes was chairman of the AFC, Simona Broomes who was at the press conference, she was a minister of the government, what did they do with these kids?
In contrast, the Vice President pointed out that the country’s economy – through strategic planning and investments by the PPP – now has endless opportunities for all citizens to capitalise upon to uplift themselves.
“Since we’ve come back into office, now, we have labour shortages. So, if any of these youngsters want to be trained, we’ve gone out and publicly said we will pay for all training…,” he said, adding that “these youngsters can find jobs if they want to work”.
“I was in Success and the people said to me that “these boys hanging around in the ballfield there all day, they don’t wanna work” and I said “I can find work for them”,” Jagdeo further outlined but noted that it is certain opposition elements that encourage these youngsters against pursuing opportunities for upliftment.
“They’re not interested in these youngsters to change their lives. They only want them to remain in a situation where they could be mobilised,” he contended.
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