Jagdeo blows fuse at PPP/C Whim Rally

Nov 09, 2011 News

“Hughes is a racist; Bissessar collected garbage at OP; Badal tried to steal a company; Ramayya a quack doctor; Singh fired 5 times; Nagamootoo an egotist.”

By Leon Suseran

President Bharrat Jagdeo threw verbal blows left, right and centre at his political opponents as well as sections of the media as supporters in their hundreds gathered last evening at the Whim Road on the Corentyne for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)’s Grand Public Meeting.
Moses Nagamootoo, Khemraj Ramjattan, Dr Veerasammy Ramayya, Sasenarine Singh, Robert Badal, David Granger, Raphael Trotman, Rajendra Bisessar, the “hostile Berbice media”, Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, and Nigel Hughes — very few were spared the furious oral assault as the responsive crowd with their party hats, t-shirts, flags and photographs of the PPP leaders, clapped, roared and cheered their party.
President Jagdeo boasted about the distribution of the first set of laptops from the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project and told the crowd that “half of those receiving [the laptops] would probably be people from Whim and sugar workers too”. He said 57,000 families will receive computers by the end of 2011.

A section of the crowd listens attentively as President Jagdeo (at centre, beneath Guyana flag) fires away at political opponents

Jagdeo touted the various investments in Region 6, such as the University of Guyana Berbice Campus; the $200M Skeldon Sugar Factory which he described as “the largest investment ever in our country by the Government in one facility, just because we want to keep sugar alive”; the Berbice River Bridge, and “we paved the roads”.
He went on to outline what the party has in store for Berbicians during the next five years such as a deep water harbour, ICT Connectivity, ensuring more jobs and “the best quality education in the world”, etc.
Jagdeo blasted the opposition for not having a vision for the future, and then the tongue-lashing began.
He linked Alliance for Change (AFC) Prime Ministerial Candidate, Raphael Trotman with visiting criminals in Buxton, saying “he was in the centre of things” and “he has never denied this because he was part of the PNC apparatus”.
Khemraj Ramjattan was blasted for understanding only “cock-eyed economics”, while the President stated—referring to AFC Executive Member, Dr Veerasammy Ramayya—that next year the government will pass a Medical Practioners’ Act “because we’ve had a lot of quacks who practice medicine and damage peoples’ health”. He added that the Ministry of Health “would ensure that they examine this man [Ramayya], and if he practices again, Ramjattan will have to visit him in prison, because we can’t allow quacks to run our country”.
Then it was Sasenarine Singh of the AFC. According to Jagdeo, Singh “…has been fired five times from five different places for stealing”. “He has done this over and over”.
Businessman Robert Badal was next in line. Jagdeo accused him of “trying to steal a company – Guyana Stockfeeds – from the government”. Rajendra Bisessar’s dressing down followed. He was described as a “total waste”. “He talks all the time. He prattles all the time. This is why I had to throw him out of the Office of the President… for laziness.”
Jagdeo then added that the newspapers published that Bisessar was the “adviser” but that he was really “collecting garbage in the OP”.
The AFC’s newest member, Moses Nagamootoo, was the next target. Jagdeo described him as having “a long track record of lying”.
“He lied on Cheddi Jagan; who else he wouldn’t lie on?”
Jagdeo rebuffed Nagamootoo’s claims that Dr. Jagan had nominated him in the Lethem as the next in line, several years ago. “Janet never remembered it and I never remembered it,” he said disdainfully.
He said Nagamootoo left the PPP because of “corruption” and told the crowd that “four months ago, he (Nagamootoo) was struggling to be the leader of this corrupt party. And because he didn’t succeed… he jumped ship. This man has an obsession! He is an egotist! He got an ego bigger than this whole Whim!
“He thinks he is special. He wants to be leader of this party and country. He can’t play a supportive member role, so he lost the elections in the party. The man has always been mediocre and useless. Dr. Jagan put him to run the Ministry of Information and he allowed Jagan to be massacred. Nagamootoo has a history of lying…of deceit.”
Responding to Nagamootoo’s comments at the Canje rally that the PPP has “screwed the sugar workers”, Jagdeo stated that every Caribbean country tried to get out of sugar but the PPP invested $4B into the industry. He stressed that Ramjattan opposed this in Parliament and “went on Dave’s TV (in Berbice) and said the government doesn’t do enough for sugar”.
“And he (Nagamootoo) talks about screwing sugar workers? He doesn’t have any respect for sugar workers,” Jagdeo shouted to cheering supporters.
Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes also did not escape his wrath. Jagdeo told the crowd that recently in a court matter, Hughes selected 44 Indian names of persons who head agencies in the Government.
“You have a racist in Nigel Hughes…[who said in the court matter] that any Indian who accesses a high position in this country does so only because of their race…a racist! Check the You Tube Videos of Nigel Hughes, you would vomit!” Jagdeo stated emphatically.
He then blasted the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News for “exaggerating the number of persons at the AFC and APNU rallies across the country”.
“Guess what they do, they come and take the camera close up and take a little patch and show ‘Massive Crowd’ the AFC and PNC have. That’s what the good cameramen do!” he said.
He noted that the two independent dailies “are on their [the opposition’s] side, that’s why every day they cuss us out and upset that I call them carrion crows, but they are carrion crows…they’re looking for dead meat, but as I have said, the dead meat is in the AFC.” He accused the Stabroek News of misrepresenting the number of persons at the PPP Lusignan rally.
Jagdeo then said that in Region Six “there are some news media and some television channels that are hostile to us (PPP/C), but we have to make sure that we understand what is happening in this country”.
He reassured the crowd that the sugar industry will be safe with Donald Ramotar, and as an afterthought added that Nagamootoo is “so shameless to talk about Cheddi Jagan legacy”.
The meeting was held in front of AFC Executive Leader’s, Dr Ramayya’s home at Whim and the crowd burst into laughter when Jagdeo expressed the notion that Moses Nagamootoo was “hiding in this man’s [Ramayya’s] house here too”. “
Regional Chairman of Region Six and Central Committee Member of the PPP, Zulfikar Mustapha, then took to the podium and guided the crowd to chant, “There is no place for Nagga (Nagamootoo)!”
Then the crowd was led to chant, “Ramayya is a quack! Ramayya is a quack!” Then it was, “Nagga is a disgrace to Whim! Nagga is a disgrace to Whim!”
“Ramayya get a US Passport. He is an American Citizen; Charrandass [Persaud] (another AFC Exec Member) get Canadian Citizenship! Sasenarine Singh and Tarron Khemraj living in America! Half of them candidate a live overseas and they want to run Guyana!” Mustapha shouted.