There’s a vast difference between the 3 years of APNU+AFC and 23 years of PPP

May 23, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
The Coalition Government is in its third year in office, and quite frankly it makes the PPP’s twenty-three years look really bad. It shows in three years what the PPP could not have done in their twenty-three long years. Today, the PPP wants us as Guyanese to believe and feel as if they had Guyana at heart; as if they cared for Guyanese and the working class.
The three years in government exposes the two decades of PPP failure to develop Guyana’s infrastructure, working class, health sector, security sector, agricultural sector, education sector, regional development, fairness to all seeking jobs, equality, transparency and accountability. It also highlights its racism and vindictiveness towards those who did not agree with the dictatorship of the party leadership.
In three years, we have seen and heard what citizens could not have engaged in during the twenty-three years of the PPP and that is freedom of speech. Today I can proudly say that every Guyanese has found their voice, be it government supporters that are speaking up to the government publicly or those that support the opposition.
Some of our well-educated and highly qualified citizens could not have found their voice to tell the PPP Government anything. Today they truly want to be patriots of this land by cussing out this APNU+AFC Coalition.
In three years, the APNU+AFC government ministers have never threatened any media owner or their employees to go after them.
This government has brought back true democracy in this land. A prime example is that we are having local government elections. This type of elections allows anyone to run for their area. It’s not a dictatorship-type of election process anymore, whereby some were barred from running because they are not politically affiliated, especially to the PPP. This was achieved in three years for the grass root people.
In three years we have seen drug lords being pulled from doing their business as if it is legally established. We have read, heard of and even witnessed the amount of drugs that are being found today and the many being prosecuted under this three-year-old administration. This was never done under the PPP during its twenty-three years.
There has also been total security reform under this government.
We saw the CPGs being made as a political arm of the PPP. Most were used to doing work for the PPP politicians throughout the country during elections. These loyalists were presented with political gifts as handouts. Today, many of the said CPGs are failing to fulfill the real purpose for which they were established, because they cannot be used by the PPP and collect those handouts. CPGs today are more open and transparent.
It took the APNU+AFC Government three years to do what the PPP could not have done in twenty-three years for the sugar industry. That is to make it viable and profitable again by downsizing the industry to ensure its sustainability. The PPP did not have the nerve to do that because they were using the sugar workers and their families to get support and votes.
This government did it because they want the industry to survive. The PPP in twenty-three years could not even better one estate to show that they care for the workers but rather, invested billions at Skeldon – a situation that has left the workers suffering today.
The PPP took the sugar from Blairmont Estate to package it at the new plant in Enmore and called it Demerara Gold. They never looked at the cost of transportation, etc. They did that to show workers and their families that they cared, but we all know it was a game.
The PPP woefully failed the sugar workers and was using them to secure benefits for themselves and cronies. Sugar workers need to understand that GAWU failed to represent them in twenty-three years. Today GAWU is fighting as if they and the PPP genuinely care for the workers. It’s just a political game!
Under the rice sector, the farmers were also made scapegoats and used by the PPP for support. The PPP hadn’t the guts to implement the correct rates and taxes that had to be put in place at MMA/ADA according to the Act, all because the majority of the farmers are said to be PPP supporters. The PPP used to divest monies from elsewhere to ensure that entity survived, because they would have lost votes.
This government ensured that the Act is implemented and today the same PPP that was and presently is using the farmers, want to challenge an Act that they were a part of when in government. Shameful!
The PPP messed up the PetroCaribe deal. Close associates, families and friends benefitted handsomely. Those were the people getting the cheese with their bread, leaving others with crumbs to survive. Some of those that benefitted from the cheese had their pictures placed on billboards during elections.
In three years, this government has ensured that there are proper infrastructural works being done in this land of ours. During the twenty-three years, we had to fixed bridges, roads, streets, pavements, buildings, etc after months of completion within various villages and regions under the PPP administration.
Looking at the infrastructure before this government took office will show the pattern of works that the PPP was inclined to accept. Some of the streets had to be rehabilitated year after year. Poor drainage systems and maintenance of village drains was the hallmark of the day under the PPP. The PPP did nothing to better Guyana when it comes to this sector.
Youths were robbed of opportunities all because they were not part of PPP’s youth arm. They were victimized all because they didn’t want to support the dictatorship.
Today, under this government, young people have opportunities as long as they meet the criteria, and without being afraid of being victimized. Young people have an opportunity to share and voice their concerns openly and they are doing that.
I can go on and on to say things that are happening better under this three-year-old government that could not have happened in twenty-three years under the PPP.
I am calling on all my Guyanese brothers and sisters to open their eyes and see the vast difference under this government. Let’s look at what the PPP achieved in their twenty-three years and compare it with three years under this APNU+AFC Government and you will see the reason for the PPP to be afraid of 2020.
Many of our own supporters are being led astray by the PPP today. Why? Because the PPP is spreading lies and trying to tell the nation that nothing good is being done under this government. But yet, for all of the propaganda, it is this government that is enhancing the airport. It is this government that lowered the toll for the Berbice Bridge that many of the PPP members are using. It is this government that raised the benefits of old age pensioners and PPP members are benefitting. It is this government that is ensuring there are better streets in villages that Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP are now using to access their supporters.
Let us not be sidetracked by the blindness of the PPP. Let’s open our minds and see the reality and truth about Guyana. No one has anything to lie to you about in this government. We have lived under the lies and deception for twenty-three long years.
Let’s ask ourselves as to why the PPP didn’t want Cde. Moses Nagamootoo, Khemraj Ramjattan and other longstanding stalwarts in their party after the death of Cheddi? They took a while to tell those individuals that they didn’t care about the struggles of the people. All they cared about were the Pradovilles and their own lives. No room for loyalty and struggles or supporters.
All that has been duly cast aside and Guyana is on the rise under the APNU+AFC. Let’s all cooperate as we work with the government in having that “Better Life For All”.
Regards
Abel Seetaram
Regional Councillor
Region 5

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