The PPP is sowing seeds of discord, but it underestimates our people

Apr 14, 2019 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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The PPP’s spin machine has kicked into high gear. It is creating scandals out of thin air. In truth, the well-worn machine is going back to the same old accusations of misdemeanours, missteps and miscreant behaviour that they themselves were accused of while in Government, behaviour and misdeeds that they remain guilty of.
We understand that the Opposition has to find work to do, but please folks, at least make the accusations a little palatable. Guyana is so long past ‘cheap’ politics. Recently the seamy attack on senior Government officials came off as desperate. The man in the street saw it as the opposition’s attempt to claw back some political gains they thought they had collected from last year’s Local Government Elections, and the December no confidence motion.
Their latest muddy campaign targeted Public Telecommunications Minister Cathy Hughes and DPI Director Imran Khan in separate attacks, which were very spurious. What it showed us is that the cabal still believes that they could topple the APNU+AFC administration, if not by underhanded means, then by playing fast and loose with people’s good name.
The smear attack concerned a legitimate media contract that was awarded by the Department of Energy (DoE) to Videomega Media Production Company that is owned by Minister Hughes. That contract went through the rigors of the Government’s procurement system before the video production company was asked to produce three television ads.
A negligible search and a bit of homework would have shown the truth to the architects of this mischievous attack on the Minister – that she has relinquished control of the production outfit to well-known television and radio personality, Russell Lancaster, and that the request for service from the DoE was way above board.
Mr. Lancaster on his own has vast experience and he knows his craft well. He and his voice are popular among large and small private sector companies in and outside of Guyana, and even among certain members of the Opposition who have utilized his services. This alone addresses the PPP’s thinly veiled accusation of conflict of interest by Minister Hughes.
The PPP is hoping that Guyanese have short memories. It is underestimating the people. The party shows us again and again that they will stop at nothing to disrupt the peace. They will do anything to try to destabilize the nation just to reclaim power and take us back to where we were before 2015. The people know what they went through and don’t want to return to those years of misery.
We cannot allow them to throw us off track. We have the people’s work to do. Our Government has been working to stabilize our economy. We have been able to restore peace and public order, and incrementally, we have been able to re-shape Guyana’s international image. It had to be done.
Before 2015, Guyana was known as a working drug transshipment point with a highly corrupt Government that was willing to sell the nation’s mineral wealth and abundance of land for a pittance, never mind what the land was being used for – illegal airstrips, and gold mining on Amerindian-owned lands.
Many foreign investors refused, or were not allowed by their own governments, to do business with Guyana, because it is illegal to invest in corrupt countries that are involved in the narcotics racket.
But this Coalition Government changed all that. We are cleaning up our investment and governance systems, a job that is nowhere near finished. Once the Courts allows us, we will keep on cleaning and modernizing until this nation is able to stand tall among the oil-producing countries in the world.
We believe that the people of Guyana should stay on top of the issues and get a good understanding of what Government has done to begin to better their lives. They have to decide whether they want growth to continue, or be fooled by people who are using them to get their hands on oil revenue. We hope that our citizens could see the benefits that will come to them through the mechanisms that this government has already put in place.
We hope that Opposition forces will not succeed in convincing poor, ordinary people that the Guyana economy is failing, and that they are facing doom and gloom if APNU stays in office. In reality, there is so much development in progress, and so much more for citizens and communities to look forward to, with Guyana on its way to becoming a mature country.
As Guyanese, we have to stand up and refuse to walk down the path being laid out by the destroyers. We have too much to offer ourselves, our children and their children, the Caribbean and the rest of the world.

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