The People’s Progressive Party has denounced the vile and offensive remarks made by Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine against President Dr Irfaan Ali on Monday.
While protesting against the removal of New Market Street vendors from outside of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), Narine descended into making a series of serious accusations against the Guyanese President, accusing him of creating an “Islamic State” – a statement which has been met with immediate backlash and calls for his immediate resignation on the ground that he was unfit to hold such office.
According to the PPP, the PNC-led APNU+AFC Opposition has, time and time again, demonstrated that it is incapable of offering meaningful leadership to its constituents, or anyone for that matter, and is therefore in its familiar obstructionist mode, with racism being its primary tool of choice. The latest manifestation of this racism, the PPP has said, unfolded on Monday when all of Guyana, and the world for that matter, looked on in shock as Mayor Narine unleashed his vile, obnoxious and religiously offensive tirade during the APNU+AFC’s attempt to obstruct the removal of vendors encumbering the New Market Street entrance of the GPHC.
“The PPP unequivocally condemns the vile, obnoxious, and religiously offensive tirade by Mayor Ubraj Narine and the racist, obstructionist campaign by the Aubrey Norton-led APNU+AFC,” the party said in a statement on Thursday.
It has been pointed out that the issue of vending in that area has been a contentious issue since 2015, when the GPHC had first complained about it. However, the GPHC’s pleas for intervention by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council fell on deaf ears, even as the number of vendors increased exponentially and the City Council collected thousands of dollars in revenue from them.
“It is clear that Mayor Ubraj Narine and the Aubrey Norton-led APNU+AFC have placed the collection of fees from the vendors and the perpetuation of their racist, obstructionist agenda ahead of the lives and well-being of pregnant mothers, the sick, and accident victims whose access to critical primary healthcare (is) being delayed by congestion of the pathways for ambulances and other vehicles transporting them,” the PPP has posited.
The ruling party argued that the blame for this uncaring, insensitive, obstructionist act should be laid squarely at the feet of the PNC and Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, whom it said has been unabatingly setting a tone of obstruction and division along ethnic and religious lines.
According to the PPP, “Instead of offering some sort of rebuke or reprimand, Mr. Norton doubles down on his racist incitement by daring to compare the attack and brutalization of vendors at Mon Repos Market, which he orchestrated and defended, with the removal of vendors encumbering the entrance to the country’s premier public health facility – a situation which puts lives at risk.”
Further responding to Norton’s accusation that the PPP/C Government is politicizing the Guyana Police Force, the party pointed to the numerous revelations coming out at the ongoing Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the post-2020 elections, which have revealed the Coalition’s shameless use of Police ranks during their attempt to subvert the will of the electorate during the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
While noting that Norton and his party might be oblivious to these revelations, the PPP reassured that the rest of the Guyanese people are not.
“The party further calls on Civil Society and other national stakeholders, as well as all patriotic Guyanese at home and abroad, to condemn Mr. Aubrey Norton and members of his cabal on this most vexing and worrying matter, and the subtle as well as overt messages of obstruction, religious and ethnic division,” the PPP missive detailed.
On Monday, Narine had gone to the New Market Street area after the Public Works Ministry initiated actions to remove vendors who are occupying spaces outside the GPHC compound between Thomas and East Streets. Those efforts to remove them followed notices sent that they were impeding traffic flow in the vicinity of the hospital. During his protest against the removal of the vendors, he uttered those vile remarks against President Ali. Opposition Member of Parliament Sherod Duncan also conducted himself in a similar manner. As a result, both Narine and Duncan have been slapped with several charges under Guyana’s Racial Hostility Act.
The duo was arraigned today, appearing first before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan to answer to several charges.
The first charge alleges that on December 12 at New Market Street, Mayor Narine and MP Duncan intentionally transmitted a video attempting to excite racial division. They were not required to plead to this charge.
The second charge states that Narine and Duncan, on the same date and location, attempted to incite racial hostility on the ground of race. To this, both Narine and Duncan pleaded not guilty.
The duo was then granted bail in the sum of $100,000 for each count, and the matter has been adjourned to January 20.
Meanwhile, the pair also stood before Magistrate Clive Nurse at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court to answer to two counts of obstructing the free flow of traffic at New Market Street on December 12. They pleaded not guilty and were released on self-bail.
