Ramotar takes on opposition haters at Babu John

Mar 05, 2013 News

…lambastes Speaker, letter writer, Nagamootoo

By Leon Suseran

A section of the gathering at Babu John

President Donald Ramotar, at Babu John, Corentyne on Sunday, vociferously lashed out at those whom he described as haters of the government and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
The attacks, he stated, are continuing “because of the success of the PPP/C government in our forward march…It is very clear that forces in the opposition want to re-write history…to forget the days when people were starving and people had to line up for the most basic commodities and want to destroy the image of Jagan”.
The President alluded to the other “haters” who made their monies during a time in Guyana when “things were extremely bad”. “They were the smugglers, the backtrackers—they are the nobly rich who, today, have a lot of money, but they do not have political authority and they want to use the freedom of the media—which we gave them, which we fought and which many of our comrades die for.
“They want to use that now to try to win political influence and that is why they will never stop hating the PPP; we cannot expect them to ever want to love us!”
He said that Dr. Jagan had to fight forces even within his own party and suffered many betrayals—”many, many people crossed the floor in parliament, and betrayed him, betrayed the movement, betrayed the struggle and he had to deal with that.”
Mr. Ramotar praised the teachings and leadership qualities of Dr. Jagan especially since he [Dr. Jagan] had to fight “right- wing and left- wing opportunism”.
Commenting on a letter which appeared in Sunday’s Kaieteur News in which a letter writer claimed that Mrs. Janet Jagan was behind all of the decisions made by Dr. Jagan, Mr. Ramotar called it a “racist propaganda, trying to say that only white people had brains. Imagine, someone to this day, in our newspaper today, still has that in their minds…and (George Maxwell) and the crew of them really need to have new brains! This is the quality of journalists we have in our country today!”
The Head of State said that the opposition forces have help on their side in some forms of the media. “Some of them use their media; use their newspapers to try to recapture an era that has passed; an era when they sat and drank whiskey at the Georgetown Club and made decisions for Guyana.
“They hate the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), and they will forever hate the PPP because we brought an end to that era in this country.”
Mr. Ramotar then compared statistics from pre- 1992 and post- 1992, including debts, GDP rates, exports, minimum wages, per capita income, gold production, crop production of rice, etc. “And our detractors are trying to say that that [pre- 1992) was a golden era!”
He stated that Guyana achieved those things because of Jagan’s foundation built from 1992.
He accused the opposition of trying to wipe out memories and history. He spoke of Jagan’s efforts to re- write and reform the Constitution, work that continued in 1999 “and we made fundamental reforms [and amendments]”.
He lashed out at AFC’s Moses Nagamootoo for recent comments made about Guyana’s debt situation. Ramotar stated that in 1991 Guyana’s debt was 658 per cent of the GDP [Gross Domestic Product]…”today, they say Jamaica is in crisis but Jamaica’s debt is only 140 per cent of its GDP—we had 658 per cent—and the jackass Nagamootoo would be asking [Dr.] Ashni Singh a question about debt in our country—well let me answer him to say that the debt now is only 48 per cent of our GDP!”
The Guyanese leader stated, too, that he was very upset—while looking at the papers on Sunday—”the vicious attack that continues on public servants…the nasty, sustained and vicious attacks unleashed on Winston Brassington, not a politician, but just a professional working with the government”.

Nadira Jagan-Brancier honours her father’s memory by placing flowers on the monument on Sunday

He noted that certain forces out there want to “frighten professionals from trying to make a contribution to the development of this country”. He said that this is “so unethical, it turns off any decent person to see the tactics they are using, and now also they have turned the attack on the Chinese”.
“Well let me tell you, history will show you that China has not exploited and colonialized any country. In fact, the record of China, is that it has been helping to build societies in Africa, etc. and we must stand up to those things; we must stand up and make the voice of the majority heard because there seems to be people being financed from somewhere, dedicating themselves at slander and attacks on politics—we can take it; we have skins like rhinoceros [es]; we don’t mind; come and attack us; but why do you [they] attack professionals and public servants? It goes against decency!”
Hundreds turned up at the Babu John Crematorium, Port Mourant for the annual tribute to the late Founder Leader of the PPP/C, and Former President of Guyana, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
The programme was chaired by Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee. Other speakers included Prime Minister Samuel Hinds. Various government officials, including President and Mrs. Ramotar then laid wreaths and flowers on the monuments erected in honour of the late Dr. Jagan and Mrs. Jagan.