– says narrative fails to acknowledge historical facts, performance of own political affiliates
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has slammed recent statements made by Vincent Alexander, Chairman of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana (IDPADA-G), describing them as “misleading and dishonest.”
Alexander, while speaking at the 4th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, claimed that Afro-Guyanese continue to face systemic marginalisation, including land dispossession and economic exclusion.
Responding to these allegations during his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo said Alexander’s narrative failed to acknowledge both historical facts and the performance of his own political affiliates.
“The PNC (People’s National Congress) had absolute control over the state for 28 years. every arm of Government: the Judiciary, the Parliament, the Executive. And yet, after all that time, the school curriculum still didn’t reflect the contributions of Afro-Guyanese? What did they do with that power? Nothing,” he remarked.
Additionally, the Vice President criticised Alexander for conveniently ignoring the period between 2015 and 2020, when the APNU/AFC (A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change) coalition government — with which Alexander was closely associated — held office.
“They not only discriminated against Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians,” Jagdeo said. “They took Afro-Guyanese for granted too. They built no homes, created no real opportunities; everybody was poor under APNU/AFC.”
Meanwhile, addressing the operations of IDPADA-G, Jagdeo accused Alexander and his colleagues of misusing state funds meant for Afro-Guyanese development.
“They were receiving $100 million per year,” he noted, “yet no real empowerment projects were ever delivered. The bulk of the money went toward salaries and rent —including renting premises from the brother of a former PNC leader.”
He further accused the organisation of functioning as a “PNC arm”, rather than a genuine vehicle for Afro-Guyanese advancement, saying, “They talked a lot about empowerment, but did nothing about it. Instead, they created a victimhood narrative to blame the PPP for their own failures.”
Jagdeo also rebutted Alexander’s claim that Afro-Guyanese are demeaned by public officials. “That is a blatant lie. No PPP official has ever said Afro-Guyanese are lazy or unworthy,” he said. “But let’s not forget: Amanza Walton said Indo-Guyanese are mentally lazy; and that came from their side.”
He added that the PPP’s criticism of the PNC has never been racial, but political. “We’ve always said the PNC excludes young, talented Afro-Guyanese from leadership. That’s not about race; it’s about the PNC’s own internal dysfunction.
Anyone who speaks out — like Natasha Singh-Lewis or Sean Smith — is called a house slave or traitor. They are vilified. Yet Alexander and IDPADA-G have never once condemned that behaviour.”
