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New Govt. only pretending to care about Guyana’s youth – PPP

Jul 08, 2015 News

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee is saying that the new government is only pretending to care about the youth of Guyana.
He made this assertion yesterday morning as he hosted the PPP’s weekly press conference at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown.
Rohee said that his party noted “with utter disgust and rejection” the “hypocritical” statements made by Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine and Minister within the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs Valerie Garrido-Lowe, at two separate events. He said that the comments to which they object both relate to the youth of Guyana.
Rohee quoted Dr. Roopnaraine as saying, “Youths must become crusaders for national reconciliation” and that they are the future as well as the present. He said that Dr. Roopnaraine made that statement at an activity organized with an aim to look into a National Youth Policy.
Further, the General Secretary quoted Garrido-Lowe at a graduation ceremony for students of the Hinterland Scholarship Programme where she said, “I see in front of me the future of Guyana and more importantly, the future of our indigenous population”.
After the references, Rohee said that the PPP views the expressions as “mere high-sounding and empty rhetoric spoken by those who pretend to be concerned about our young people in general and to those in the hinterland in particular.”
Rohee said that the pretence is brought to light in the “on-going witch-hunt which has since spread to the hinterland and (is) severely impacting the young people in the hinterland communities.   Scant regard was given to the fact that the Hinterland Scholarship Programme is one of the many flagship indicatives of the PPP/C administration.”
The former Minister added that the Ministers spoke from both sides of their mouths and failed to recognize that the vast majority of young people in the interior of Guyana face daily challenges which they must struggle to overcome either by dint of hard work and/or a rewarding income.
In this regard, Rohee said that it is “sad to know that notwithstanding all the rhetoric, the Granger-led de-facto administration has cut loose and thrown onto the bread line 1,972 Community Support Officers (CSOs).”
Rohee said that the CSOs were “unjustly” branded “political activists” by the new administration but they really and truly “carried out support services to the Village Councils, particularly in the social services sector in various Amerindian communities in their respective regions.”
He noted that the CSOs used to receive a monthly stipend of $30,000 each which amounted to approximately some $60M per month paid by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs. He said that the group of young people has been left in the lurch since the PPP demitted office.
According to Rohee, “Minister (Sydney) Allicock has been totally neglectful to them by not telling them anything about monies owed to them much less about their future…Garrido-Lowe, Roopnaraine and Allicock are totally oblivious to the hurt and pain they caused to the 1,972 CSOs. They obviously don’t care a damn about them either.
The question is therefore how and why should the Amerindian youths who make up the majority of CSOs become Roopnaraine’s crusaders of reconciliation or Garrido-Lowe’s future of the indigenous population, when such brutal and insensitive treatment reminiscent of the Spanish conquistadores is meted out to them by their modern day imitators.’
(Abena Rockcliffe)

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