The redundancy of the parliamentary opposition has been exposed once again by the General Secretary (GS) of the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
Speaking at his weekly party press conference, held at Freedom House, Robb Street, the GS berated the racist rhetoric of members of the opposition.
He claimed that the Alliance For Change party, though present in Guyana’s political landscape for some time, lacks a track record of having a positive impact on the nation.
The GS highlighted this after the opposition continued to display their rancour at the recent sitting of the National Assembly. The most recent display of irrelevant redundancy was during the debates of the proposed amendment to the Acquisition of Lands for Public Purposes Act, which the opposition claims possess clauses that would disenfranchise some Guyanese.
Dr Jagdeo highlighted the fact that it is not completely uncommon, especially in the Caribbean, for there to be clauses present in the process of land acquisition. Furthermore, he cited that the law was already in place, just that it was deficient in certain regards.
PPP/C GS Bharrat Jagdeo
The GS decried the absurd notion that there are racial ill-intentions behind the new amendment, pointing out the frayed rhetoric of the opposition elements.
“[They are making it] seem; (because we were updating the law to bring it consistent with what is in the rest of the Caribbean), that it’s a racist thing and we will target Afro Guyanese and Amerindian ancestral lands. (It has absolutely nothing to do with Amerindian lands or targeting Afro Guyanese). But they can’t help themselves being racist, making everything about race,” the GS lamented.
The GS further substantiated the Government’s generalised approach to land acquisition by highlighting some of the recent projects that required the acquisition of some privately owned land. He pointed out that those deals were made with majorly Indo-Guyanese when the opposition would suggest that only Afro-Guyanese are being disproportioned.
“How does this become racist when we acquire land? Even in the Heroes Highway, we had to acquire land from a large number of people there, and it’s maybe 50 per cent Indo-Guyanese and several people in Mocha…We gave them some money and we gave them land elsewhere, etc and worked with them,” Dr Jagdeo expressed.
GS Jagdeo reminded that no private land that would be acquired by the Government would be converted for the personal use of any Government official. He highlighted that land acquisition is done for public infrastructure upgrades.
“The Government cannot take your land to build a house for a Minister. But it could [be done] like what we have done, [which is] to put in roads, bridges and that sort of stuff so that all of our people benefit,” he stated.
This transparent process of land acquisition was contrasted by the actions of the opposition during their final days in Government during the 2020 period. Dr Jagdeo pointed out the many instances of corrupt practices in the distribution of land.
However, Jagdeo noted that the current PPP/C Government has always maintained transparency in its dealings with private citizens.
“Every time we tried to acquire, we’ve dealt fairly with people. We’ve had tons of people in all communities get a plot of land now, 40,000 Guyanese of all walks of life, every race. Since the PPP got into office, they have secured a piece of land.”
