Leader of the Peoples National Congress (PNC) Aubrey Norton has admitted that the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration was wrong to have embarked on a campaign to paint State properties in party colours.
Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday, Norton said “I believe when the APNU was in government, we also overdid it with green in some areas. We need to find consensus as to how we remove partisanship from national projects. That, to me, is critical…something as simple as the colour of State buildings…for us to have a consensus so that we don’t poltiicise it even by the colour.”
When the PNC-led APNU+AFC government was in power from 2015 to 2020, they came in for heavy criticisms for painting a number of public spaces and State buildings in their party colours: green and yellow.
Most egregious of all was the repainting of the official residence of the Head of State: State House – a Heritage Building – in green. Despite widespread criticisms, the then President David Granger had justified the move, claiming that he had broken no law by doing so.
The former APNU+AFC government had also repainted the Ministry of the Presidency (Office of the President) in green and again, Granger had justified this move, saying “we would like to send a message to the rest of the country, to schools, to our hospitals, to other government buildings that ‘yes, it is cool to be green’.”
Under the former government, a number of other public buildings and fences were painted green. Several public infrastructures such as park benches were also painted in party colours.
Priya Manickchand, a member of the parliamentary opposition at the time, had expressed concerns over the subliminal message the APNU+AFC government was sending by its actions.
Manickchand, who is now the minister of education, had argued that the “greening and yellowing” of Guyana is reminiscent of the days when the flag of the former People’s National Congress (PNC) was flown over the Court of Appeal – a signal of party paramountcy.
