Every Guyanese will rise – Manickchand tells PNC/APNU

…slams Opposition for “racist propaganda”

Local Government and Regional Development Minister Priya Manickchand has rejected attempts by the People’s National Congress–led A Partnership for National Unity (PNC/APNU) to spread racist propaganda regarding the Government’s recent interventions in Tiger Bay, Georgetown.
She was responding to remarks made by PNC/APNU Member of Parliament David Hinds. Hinds had commented on the Government’s recent visit to Tiger Bay, Georgetown, where President Dr Irfaan Ali announced a number of interventions aimed at enhancing the community.

Among other things, Hinds said, “Every Black man and Black woman should be offended by that spectacle.” Hinds had also attacked Minister Manickchand’s photographs with children from the area, saying they were “a poppy show of the poverty of our people”. Manickchand has since rejected Hinds and his party’s attempts to spread racist messaging.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Manickchand reminded that the PNC/APNU never did anything to uplift the lives of the residents of Tiger Bay – not even when they were in Government from 2015 to 2020.
“This abusive fossil is trying for some relevance. Let’s indulge him. What did Hinds and Co. ever do for Tiger Bay or people of African descent generally? EVER? Nothing,” Manickchand posited.
“In their time in recent Government, APNU/AFC did nothing to empower people and nothing at all to empower vulnerable communities or African Guyanese. Not a single secondary school was started and finished. Anywhere. Not a single African Guyanese family, that wasn’t connected to the elite, was built up through being awarded civil works or higher education opportunities. Not a single young African Guyanese was offered the opportunity to move into the small contractor group or from small contractors to medium and then large… Yet when the time came and APNU refused to give up Government even though the people of Guyana had thrown them out of office with their vote, this derelict was happy to foist the same non-service on the whole of Guyana and particularly people of African descent by saying that Granger should be made President again while we worked out what he deemed electoral kinks, aka a failed attempt to rig the election,” she noted.
According to the Local Government Minister, “the likes of David Hinds would like to see African people struggle and stumble and go into or stay in poverty so he could exploit them using his old race baiting for his narrow political gains.”
“I say get from here. That is old and backward and will not be accommodated in this Government and by me. Every Guyanese will rise up, and I make no apologies and have no reservations in aggressively going after that cause,” she contended.
Moreover, Manickchand shared a few snippets of Facebook users rejecting Hinds’ racist messaging, expressing that “the nation is letting the PNC/APNU leaders KNOW the old, backward, sexist, racist politicking just ain’t gonna be accepted!”
On Sunday, President Ali outlined a transformative urban renewal programme that will include the construction of a futsal and basketball facility, the renovation of two historic buildings, expanded social services for children and mothers, and new mechanisms to help households upgrade their living conditions.
The initiative is part of the One Guyana “Neighbourhood Love” programme, which aims to rebuild communities through shared responsibility and sustained investment.
Hinds, originally from the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) party, was appointed as a PNC/APNU MP following the September 1 General and Regional Elections.
Hinds is notorious for making racist and derogatory remarks, which were often defended by leaders within the PNC/APNU, including the party’s leader, Aubrey Norton.
In the lead-up to the 2025 elections, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and Guyana’s Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had criticised the PNC/APNU and the WPA for their continued attacks on Afro-Guyanese who have either endorsed the PPP/C or who are seizing opportunities provided by the current Administration to empower and uplift themselves.