In a blazing headline recently, a local newspaper reported that NBS lost more than $1.6B. The headline portrayed President Irfaan Ali instructing NBS to take certain actions, causing NBS to lose more than $1.6B over the period 2022 to 2023. The headline was completely wrong. The NBS continued to make profit throughout 2022/2023 from increasing mortgage loans to ordinary citizens of Guyana, as the housing boom continues.
The President had urged all banks in Guyana to lower the interest rate on mortgages. NBS and other banks responded and took advantage of incentives Government provided to them in order to promote home mortgages. In the case of NBS, the 14,000 Guyanese that had mortgages saved more than $1.6B, but the propaganda paper presented the story as NBS losing money because of President Ali.
This kind of fabricated narrative is not harmless, since it could lead to a loss of confidence in the banking industry. The false narrative was debunked during Bharrat Jagdeo’s regular Thursday press conference last week. The job of ensuring the Guyanese people have access to the truth has fallen on the shoulders of BJ, which he expertly does each and every Thursday.
For dispelling the falsehoods, correcting the records, getting the narrative right, BJ is deemed a bully by those who seek to spread propaganda. For the likes of propaganda rags such as Kaieteur News, Glen Lall, hate-filled commentators like GHK Lall, and others, BJ must not dispute the false narratives they spread. It is utter nonsense. Fortunately, BJ stands strong and unbending, and his rejection of the propaganda is brutal, each and every week.
Last week, Moses Nagamootoo spoke about the lofty goals of unity in our country. Moses has no ability to learn from the old mantra – you live in glass house, do not throw stones. He bemoaned that when President Ali was sworn-in, he had to leave the PM Residence the next day, and that he had to give up his vehicles. Moses ignored that he and the PNC/APNU/AFC cabals did even worse in 2015.
Former PM Sam Hinds told the story of how he was not allowed to even enter the yard, and had to take a minibus downtown. “I was told to return my vehicle, hand over my office keys and vacate my home in which I lived for more than 18 years almost immediately after David Granger was sworn in as President. I was not given even a single day. I had to give away all my belongings and leave my personal stuff in the office. But I know that the APNU/AFC Ministers of Health in 2020 did not vacate their offices immediately after President Ali was sworn in. I know too that many APNU/AFC ministers in government-owned homes did not immediately vacate those homes. It was several weeks after that some left their homes.”
Moses cannot talk about unity, unless he could admit to his and his colleagues’ wrongdoings, such as literally chasing us out of our homes and offices in 2015, and their shameless effort to thief the 2020 elections. They squatted in office for five months after they lost the 2020 elections. In fact, they squatted in office for 17 months, because elections were due in March 2019.
When we talk about unity, we must show that we are capable of admitting our wrongs.
The Opposition parties in Guyana and their surrogates have nightmares as they wait for Thursdays to come every week. They know that their cesspit of lies and misrepresentations; fake, fabricated, clumsy narratives will be ripped to shreds by the General Secretary of the PPP. Without fail, the Leader of the Opposition’s fake narratives each week are exposed; without fail, the fabricated narratives of one of the newspapers in Guyana that is a cesspool for propaganda is ripped apart, exposed for the world to see. Often, this newspaper’s fake and fabricated narratives are so blatant that the newspaper is forced to hide somewhere in some one of its hidden parts a silly apology for these lies.
Just last Saturday, the newspaper reported that the Government terminated a contract for the Conversation Tree Road Project. It was forced to apologize the very next day, because no termination actually occurred. But the strategy is clear: they publish in blazing headlines a false story, and then — if absolutely necessary — publish an apology somewhere hidden in the newspaper to protect themselves from accountability.
Those who have elected themselves as experts, or as spokespersons or representatives of various groups in Guyana, or as the social conscience of the Guyanese people, have nightmares every night as they wait, with tremendous trepidation, for another Thursday to come.
Each and every Thursday, except on holidays, thousands of persons across Guyana and in the diaspora, the media in Guyana, around Caricom and in the diaspora, tune in to the BJ Press Conference. BJ has held a press conference every Thursday, other than on holidays and other special occasions, since he assumed office as General Secretary of the PPP in 2016. As a strong, competent and effective GS of the PPP, he ensures that the PPP functions not only as a strong and effective Government, as it was elected by the people to be, but that the party has not lost touch with the people.
One newspaper dedicated a whole page denouncing the Thursday press conferences as a “pappy show”. What the critics of BJ take umbrage at is BJ exposing their propaganda. BJ has never relied on anyone to defend him; he is capable of defending himself against the consistently ferocious attacks he is subjected to. Every Thursday, BJ tears their fabricated narrative to pieces, and the citizens of Guyana get to know the truth. What most irritates the naysayers is that the citizens are not fooled by their constant fabricated nonsense. In ripping apart the propaganda, BJ brings nightmares to his critics.
