The Leader of the Opposition refused to descend into the gutter in response to the unwarranted, baseless and repugnant attack from Raphael Trotman which was followed by a vile social media video by his Junior Minister, Simone Broomes. Instead, Bharrat Jagdeo repeated his and the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) concerns relating to the Petroleum Bill and, in general, the downward economic and political spiral Guyana is experiencing at this time.
With mounting failure, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) and its Ministers are wildly flailing like a beached whale, desperately seeking machinations to conceal their failures and kerfuffle the people. Last Wednesday in Parliament, Minister Trotman knew he had no answers and sought to hide his limitations and his and APNU/AFC’s failure, first by trying to muzzle Jagdeo, and, then by spewing venom and hate towards him. The truth is they are in complete awe of, and intimidated by Jagdeo. They know that together they cannot equal Jagdeo’s accomplishments. They know that the most admired and respected politician in Guyana is Jagdeo.
Broomes has an embarrassingly undistinguished tenure as a Junior Minister so far. She sought to score points with her bosses by heaping insults on the Leader of the Opposition. But her stupid, blithering video merely succeeded in bringing the inquisitive glare of public attention to herself and humiliated herself and her colleagues in APNU/AFC. Worst, she brought disrepute to the 11th Parliament in her clearly reprehensible rip-off of Allison Hunt. Now this public glare is forcing people to ask what Broomes has accomplished as a Junior Minister.
Broomes at the Social Protection Ministry in 2015 illegally issued a circular to the Public Service Permanent Secretary to halt interviews to fill vacancies because she wanted to hand-pick candidates for those positions. During that time and until January 2017, as a Junior Minister, she rented a fancy house for $500,000 per month. In addition, as a Junior Minister in Natural Resources, in a conflict of interest scandal, Broomes egregiously owns three mining permits within lands that the Akawaio Village of Tasserene have applied for an Absolute Grant under the Amerindian Land Titling Programme. As the Junior Minister in the Social Protection Ministry, she LIED when she denied this fact. She maintained this LIE when she became Junior Minister in the Natural Resources Ministry, even as proof was provided. Then at a press conference with Trotman, she LIED again, insisting she had sold those permits. This is the totality of her accomplishment as a Junior Minister in APNU/AFC.
In that LIE, Trotman and APNU/AFC are complicit. Yet, people like Trotman and Broomes dare to question the legitimacy and the accomplishments of Bharrat Jagdeo. APNU/AFC is now heaping all its hopes and aspirations on Exxon and oil. But APNU/AFC and Trotman inherited Exxon and oil from Jagdeo and the PPP. The Demerara Harbour Bridge replacement began under Jagdeo. Both these major development initiatives were further advanced under Ramotar. When Jagdeo cautioned that oil is not a panacea, he has proof – none of the developing countries with oil has eliminated poverty and become developed countries. Far from being a messenger of doom, Jagdeo is being a LEADER of SUBSTANCE. In his vision, oil will bring prosperity in a country where agriculture, bauxite, gold, manufacturing, ICT, entrepreneurship etc collectively are permitted to prosper.
Trotman, Broomes and APNU/AFC inherited an economy which has been out-performing most of the economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, increasing from under US$300 (1992) per capita to almost US$4000 (2015), an increase of more than 1300 per cent; a country which have had nine years of successive economic growth and a country which took an external death of over 900 per cent of its GDP (1992) and reduced it to under 50 per cent. In just two years, these purveyors of doom have stalled the economy and put 10,000 people out of a job. They took a country where foreign direct investment (FDI) was flowing freely and today FDI has grounded to a halt. Rice is under assault. Sugar is being closed. Business has stagnated. In the meanwhile dictatorship is rapidly extending its tentacles, taking a hold once again in our country and there is metastasising corruption. To prove social cohesion, APNU/AFC boasts there is one non-Afro-Guyanese PS out of 16.
The ugly, repugnant displays this past week by Trotman and Broomes represent their inability to engage Jagdeo and the PPP in a constructive dialogue to move Guyana forward. It was a desperate effort to hide their story – purveyors of doom.
