Jagdeo accuses Govt of spreading racism

Mar 25, 2017 Features / Columnists, News

…provides no evidence to support claim

By Brushell Blackman
Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo has accused the government of using internet trolls to spread

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo

racism across the country. At a recent press conference Jagdeo said that the clandestine operation is being undertaken by the Department of Public Information (DPI) who has a secret budget set aside for this operation.
The former president said that he was reliably informed by a source that the Department of Public Infrastructure is paying about 50 trolls who are using Indo and Afro Guyanese sounding names to canvas the internet and they are using the most hateful and racist language to polarize the society.
Jagdeo said the trolls are fake and are enticing people to chat by using the photographs of pretty women.
When Jagdeo was asked to elaborate on the ‘secret budget’ he could not give a figure. He indicated that he was not going to divulge. He also accused another newspaper of being complicit with the DPI.
In the same vein the Opposition Leader could not direct members of the media to one of these ‘fake’ profiles but indicated that he knows about the budget.
Jagdeo suggested that most profiles that are currently online are not authentic. “The majority of the people you see online have fake profiles. It’s an industry generated by the DPI to polarize our people.”
The former president believes that this latest move is strategic and comes at a time when the ruling administration is coming under pressure for the performance of the economy.
He said that the government is losing support from all fronts of the society and the ‘race card’ is to deflect attention away from an underperforming economy.
“If you are Afro Guyanese or Indo Guyanese it affects you, if you are PPP or PNC it (economy) affects you.” According to Jagdeo the expression the government is hearing is that it is losing support because of the economy.
“We hear on the ground people say we are done with them (APNU+AFC). They are not stupid in that regard.” It is for this reason Jagdeo believes that racism is being used to project the government in a favorable manner and his party in a negative way.
The opposition leader believes that if the nation is polarized racially there will be apprehension to go across on the other side of the divide. “If you polarize people they will say I lost my job, but the other side is racist so I better don’t cross”.
He said that the foregoing is a carefully crafted strategy and will ensure that the troubles with the economy are not ventilated. He accused the government of being experts in ‘attention deflection’.
The opposition leader said that his party condemns all forms of racism and is calling on the government to do the same with regards to the alleged ‘fake’ profiles.
Jagdeo boasted that his party will not tread that path since their achievements can be presented admirably and his party has enough argument to highlight the corruption and ineptitude of the ruling party. He urged citizens not to fall victims to the government trap and urged that cordial discourses be embraced by the citizenry.

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