PPP/C Member of Parliament’s response to KN (Part 1)

Dear Editor,
I write in response to the Kaieteur News editorial of September 14, “A Broken Party.”
The editorial of a newspaper is meant to reflect the opinion of that medium on the issue. I do not believe this article was written by the Editor-in-Chief, Adam Harris, nor does it reflect the views of its publisher, Glenn Lall. Neither is so naive as to believe that the People’s Progressive Party is “a broken party”.
This editorial reflects such biased views and arrogant contempt for the PPP that it is most likely written by someone with the mindset of a Freddie Kissoon, although Freddie is not that naive either.
The editorial begins, “History has shown that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has descended into an abyss of a mere vote-getting machine based on race politics bent on dividing the country.” Surely, this “editor” is ignorant of the political history of the country, and should have done some research before putting his pen into gear. With all the irregularities that took place during the 2015 General Election, the PPP/C secured 202,694 votes to the APNU/AFC’s 207,200 votes, a difference of 4506 votes. In 2011, the APNU and the AFC contested separately, but secured a total of 175,011 votes, compared to 166,340 for the PPP/C (source: GECOM).
Then at the Local Government Elections in March 2016, the PPP/C won 24,894 MORE VOTES than the governing APNU+AFC, securing 48 NDCs in the 70 Local Authority Areas contested. These results clearly demonstrate that the PPP is still the largest political party in the country. This, Dear Editor, is our history as documented by GECOM, and no rational person would describe this as a “broken party”.
But it gets even more absurd. This Kaieteur News “editor” propagates, “The PPP is distinctive from other political parties in Guyana because it is corrupt and crooked. It does not have a vision and the challenge its members face today is new leadership. The party is at a critical crossroad, it is a broken party, and its members are asking serious questions about its future, its leadership and what role it can exercise in the future governance of the country.” Well now, this diatribe is beginning to sound more like an Abel Seetaram on pethidine.
So before I respond to the nonsense spewed in this so-called “editorial”, let me once again for transparency and self-disclosure, admit that I was once a fierce critic of former President Bharrat Jagdeo and his PPP Administration. While living in New York, my hunger for news out of Guyana caused me to be negatively influenced by the onslaught of news critical of the PPP/C Government, propagated by the local online press and Mark Benschop on his hate radio. Without facts or evidence, I too joined the misinformation campaign, and maliciously accused the Jagdeo Administration of corruption in much the same way as this Administration is doing now. But then, after returning regularly on vacations, I was able to see first-hand the metamorphosis that had taken place from the hopelessness I had left behind when I migrated during the reign of the PNC. For despite the allegations of corruption, prosperity was evident everywhere. Guyanese owned more cars and beautiful homes than ever before. There were new schools and hospitals and a network of beautifully paved roads. Guyanese had jobs and money in their pockets. Blackouts were rapidly diminishing. The crime rate was still too high and there were pockets of problems of course, but, in general, people were mostly happy.

Sincerely,
Harry Gill
PPP/C Member of Parliament