Govt buckling to mounting public pressure – PPP

… diverting attention from economic chaos, social despair

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has dismissed declarations of Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, claiming that charges will be laid against former Ministers of the previous Administration as early as next week.

The Opposition party was responding to comments attributed to Minister Ramjattan in an another section of the media on Saturday regarding a probegranger an ramjattan conducted by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) into the operations of the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL).

According to the PPP, while it is ready to “strenuously” defend any such actions brought against members of its Government, this “reckless outburst” of the Public Security Minister is not only a political gimmick but shows that the coalition Administration is buckling against mounting public pressure.

The Opposition pointed out that this Government has long been making threats against former Government officials; however, this most recent utterance highlights inconsistencies within the ruling Administration.

“The President (David Granger) is on record on numerous occasions saying that the forensic audits have not produced evidence upon which criminal charges can be instituted. Similarly, Khemraj Ramjattan, himself, has been quoted in the press only last month as saying that the forensic audits were merely a stock taking excise. Now, the nation is being fed a different story.”

This, the PPP noted, comes against the backdrop of economic chaos, social despair and public pressure upon the Government at its highest.

“The Government has buckled and has chosen Ramjattan as the instrument to distract attention from the massive difficulties facing the Guyanese people and the gross incompetence and inability of the Government to address them. So, Ramjattan has been instructed to bring the wine and bread to the circus and Kaieteur News is the ready and willing amphitheater. It is all part of a political and propagandistic gimmick,” the PPP said as it lashed out at the callousness of Ramjattan.

Moreover, the PPP asserted that these “clumsy threats” are coming from the Government when it is not the function of the Government to institute criminal charges, but that of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) which is an independent constitutional office.

According to the Opposition, if a Government cannot even understand its role and functions, it can never competently discharge them. It added too that instead of managing and growing the economy, creating more jobs and making the lives of the Guyanese people better, the coalition Administration is doing exactly the opposite.

“Rather than admit to their incompetence, try to improve or seek help, they conceal their ineptitude by violating the Constitution and encroaching upon the constitutional mandate of other agencies. It is clear therefore, that if ever these charges are brought, they will not be the product of professional investigation but the manifestation of political vendetta and witch-hunting.”

To this end, the PPP called upon the Public Security Minister and the Alliance For Change (AFC) to answer to the allegations that millions of dollars of bribes are being paid for gun licences and tint permits. Minister David Patterson, it added, should come clean about the multibillion-dollar scandal at the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) in relation to the meter contract and the millions of dollars that contractors claims are extracted from them as bribes for contracts which do not go to public tendering.

Furthermore, the Opposition said Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo should also explain how his son-in-law became involved in the privatisation of Skeldon Estate and in the purchase of the two planes acquired by the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).

“It is public knowledge that the Government is buckling under tremendous public pressure coming from numerous directions.”

This is evident, the statement from PPP outlined, with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) collapsing; the parking meter fiasco escalating; the economy continuing to contract; cost of living skyrocketing; criminal activities continuing unabated; the D’Urban Park, drugs bond and the twenty other scandals are still fresh in the people’s mind; the public outrage continues to mount against the two hundred odd tax measures imposed on the backs of the Guyanese people, including Value Added Tax (VAT) on electricity, water, health and education services; and the ongoing political and racial discrimination being institutionalised by and in Government.

The PPP continued in the public missive that the coalition Administration appears impotent to deal with these issues, especially that of unemployment and a lack of job creation opportunities.

Against this backdrop, the Opposition is calling on those in charge within the administration of justice, organisations championing the cause of human rights and every law abiding citizen to recognise that the Government’s agenda has nothing to do with the rule of law, due process or justice.

“Theirs is an agenda of revenge, political vindictiveness and vendetta.”