Opposition Leader challenges President to debate ethnic relations

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has challenged President David Granger to a debate with him over ethnic relations, stating that he is prepared to do that anytime in the public domain to prove to the coalition Government that Afro-Guyanese favoured well under the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) rule.
Notwithstanding the many issues he would like to challenge the President about, the former Head of State said paramount of these issues is the hiring practices in the country.
“I can talk to him about race relations. I’m prepared to debate race relations and who have contributed to this country, which party has contributed to worsening

race relations in Guyana,” he asserted.
Jagdeo said he is also prepared to challenge President Granger on what he described as fallacies and the myths that his Government keeps perpetrating that they’ve done more for Afro-Guyanese than the PPP.
According to Jagdeo, he is prepared to match the record of the People’s National Congress (PNC) – the party which Granger claims to have been affiliated with for over 50 years – from 1964 to 1992 and 2015 to present with that of the PPP’s 20 years in office.
While noting that the President’s statements about being in the PNC for over 50 years, the PPP General Secretary said he is prepared to match the record of the PNC from 1964 to 1992 and then from 2015 to now, against the PPP’s 23 years in office on several practices, access to well black owned businesses.
“In terms of business ownership, in the tenure of the PPP, at no time in our history have there been so many black-owned businesses for every type of service,” he said. They range from security, computer, hairdressing, taxi service and construction. “I am prepared to put our record on the line comparatively… our record will speak for itself,” he said.
“I’m sure you will see a pattern where Afro-Guyanese have fared better in that period under the PPP than ever under PNC rule and I’m prepared to debate that openly, publicly, using records to destroy this myth that they used to perpetrate that we killed 400 Afro-Guyanese,” he continued. Ever since the coalition Administration took power in 2015, Jagdeo said there have been many cries by Afro-Guyanese PPP supporters of being discriminated against and even targeted

by Government, especially those who worked within the past Administrations.
Jagdeo has previously stated that under the PPP, Linden received a brand new hospital, two new secondary schools, new housing schemes at Amelia’s Ward and Block 22, a new potable water supply system and subsidized electricity. Other achievements by Afro-Guyanese, he listed, were access to land, public service jobs and home ownership. “I am proud of our record, how we have moved this country forward and a lot of our people; in fact, all of our people made progress,” he said.
Only recently, former Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary under the PPP Administration, Dr Roger Luncheon has been recorded in the media highlighting issues where a number of Government employees were being targeted because of their ethnicity and political affiliations.
“We have made this point that black members of the People’s Progressive Party… are unusually exposed and treated to the rampant discrimination of this Granger Administration. It’s historical. In the olden days in the PNC, it happened and in the more modern days under the name of the APNU and the coalition, it continues…Black members of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, who are employed working in the Government service, are unusually targeted by this Administration,” Dr Luncheon had said. He noted that the issue was brought to the attention of the Administration and “particular Ministers in the Administration” while outlining that “the silence is deafening.” Dr Luncheon also criticised civil society for staying silent on the issue, noting that Guyanese are condoning the actions of the APNU/AFC Administration by not speaking out against what he described as a “travesty.”