The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will soon launch its election manifesto, which will comprise several programmes from its 2015 manifesto aimed at further developing Guyana.
This was according to the Party’s General Secretary (GS), Bharrat Jagdeo during his address to thousands of supporters who turned up a meeting at Port Mourant on Saturday.
Jagdeo stated that despite the wealth of experience and competent members within the Party, the manifesto would reflect the best for all Guyana with input from all.
“Get on to the Party so that we can get your ideas included, since we believe that in the programme that we will launch before the elections, your wishes and desires must be reflected and that once we put forward that programme, unlike the APNU [A Partnership for National Unity], that will be our promise to the people of Guyana to fulfil.”
Commenting on Government’s ability to see into the future, Jagdeo referred to the current Administration as a government without a vision.
“When we were in government, we were talking about a green sector, a low-carbon development strategy that will bring new jobs and new wealth.”
This, he added, was going to upgrade the sugar and rice industries.
“That is what the vision was. You know what they have reduced it now to? When a reporter asked the President (Granger) ‘How are you going to create jobs in the future,’ he said, ‘We must do things like making pepper sauce and making cook-up to sell, and making plantain chips…’ That is where we have come from; talking about a future that will create thousands of jobs and new wealth and new infrastructure and a modern country to now selling plantain chips and cook-up rice, you can’t run a country on that…”
As it relates to the Corentyne, the Party leader repeated his promise to reopen the sugar estates that were closed in December of 2017.
Government closed the Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates leaving only the Albion Estate functional. In fact, 1851 workers were sacked from the Skeldon Sugar Estate, 1181 from the Rose Hall Estate, 1480 from the East Demerara Sugar Estate and 251 from the Wales Sugar Estate.
In Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), which had depended heavily on sugar, with the closure of two of the three sugar estates in the Region, all other sectors have been affected.
“People have to earn to be able to put food on their table and send their children to school, so that is what we want to see,” the Opposition Leader stated.
During his presentation, Jagdeo also addressed the no-confidence motion, which was successfully passed in the National Assembly.
He explained that the Speaker of the House has already ruled on it – refusing to reverse his decision, but he allowed the court to rule on the various issues which arose.
The court’s ruling will just serve as a guide for the future the Opposition Leader told his supporters.
“After March 19, this Government becomes unconstitutional, illegal, illegitimate so when they come out here stop calling them Minister, President and Prime Minister after that date.
They are trying to sell the sugar industry now in the few days they have remaining. We said we will not recognise any sale of the sugar industry because the Government is in a caretaker capacity,” Jagdeo added.
Over 5000 PPP supporters turned up at Train Line Dam, Port Mourant, on Saturday, where they were greeted and addressed by the presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali.
