Jagdeo reacts sharply to Granger’s criticism

Oct 15, 2016 News

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

Leader of the Opposition and former President Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters on Thursday at the Public Buildings, that President David Granger’s speech is the kind which is delivered a week after ascending to political office.
“You criticizes the people, the opposition or former government, you talk about your difficulties, you cast blame on everyone and then you give some broad guidelines about how your government will operate.”
He said that the President’s speech is unbecoming for the leader of a government which has already spent a quarter of its term in office.
He was reacting to President David Granger’s speech at the re-opening of parliament. He described it as a desecration to the chambers of the National Assembly.
In the presence of his party comrades former Junior Finance Minister Juan Edghill and former Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs Pauline Sukhai, Jagdeo said, “He (Granger) starts off in a very hostile way talking about the decade of the troubles and he laid this directly on the feet of the People’s Progressive Party.”
The opposition leader said that Granger’s notion about the assassination of a minister which was not investigated is incorrect. Granger was referring to the death of former Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh.
“It is not true. In fact, someone was charged for killing Sash Sawh. If he only would ask the Commissioner of Police and they will send him a huge file which had a full police investigation. He has (Winston Felix) there. Felix would tell him about it. ”
Jagdeo was also critical of the President’s comment on the United Kingdom Security Sector Reform Action Plan. He said that his party was in discussion with the UK and believes the project died because the British government diverted funds to other places such as Afghanistan.
Secondly, Jagdeo said the project fell through because the PPP/C government refused to allow British soldiers to come and stage an exercise in Guyana close to the Venezuelan border in an Amerindian community using live rounds.
“I said, once I am president that wasn’t gonna happen. So there was a reason for this, because we were not gonna trade our sovereignty for this, the colonial power to tell us to put conditions that may harm our communities or create problems with our neighbours.”
On the issue of the economy, Jagdeo sought to discredit the President’s description of there being a parlous economic situation when government changed in May 2015.
He said that Guyana’s economy has been growing for the past 10 years at an average growth rate of over four per cent. “No other country in the region has seen 10 years of continuous growth. Secondly, our debt to GDP figures had come down from 900 per cent to 48 per cent of GDP.”
As it relates to the Public Procurement Commission, Jagdeo said that Granger’s excuse of waiting on the establishment of the Terms of Reference is unnecessary, since the TORs are enshrined in the constitution. He said that the Executive arm of government cannot produce the TORs.
According to Jagdeo, the President’s speech shows how out of touch he is with reality. “He comes to this parliament routinely and he just speaks about different issues that have very little relevance to people’s lives.”

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