President Ali says racism will not succeed in Guyana
– club receives $2.5M govt grant
President Irfaan Ali while paying tribute to former presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan at Babu Jaan yesterday stressed that racism will not be allowed to succeed in Guyana under his government; he warned that the days of those who push such an agenda are numbered.
He stated, “We will disband, destroy and completely wipe out the weapon of racism that continues to be used against the people of this country. And those who handle the weapon must understand that their days are numbered and their days are coming to an end because that weapon is being destroyed globally and that weapon will be buried here in Guyana.
“Comrade Cheddi lived for the working class but he did not live to see the working class remain the working class or remain in poverty, he lived to uplift them out of poverty.”
According to him, the PPP/C continues to fight to uplift and remove the working class from poverty and to give them equal opportunities. “So the more persons in the working class who can graduate up, it is paying greater respect to the legacy of Dr Cheddi Jagan,” he said.
He then pointed out that before oil and gas, under Jagan until the PPP/C left government, minimum wage in Guyana increased by 1,577%, “that is the legacy of Dr Jagan, the Peoples Progressive Party.”
Between 1993 and 1995, minimum wage increased by 100%, he said, while between 1991 and 2014 the country’s external debt was reduced by 50%, and between 1991 and 2014 the debt-to-GDP ratio moved from 677% to 34%, “that is the legacy that we celebrate.”
According to Ali, the naysayers don’t highlight such facts since they have one agenda which is to gain political power.
He stated that between 2015 and 2019 under the APNU+AFC administration sugar production declined by $21 billion. “These guys closed the sugar estates and today they have the audacity to sit in a hotel and to write banners saying give more to the sugar workers when they destroyed completely in less than five years the sugar estates,” he said.
Additionally, during the same period, he said, forestry declined by $31 billion, and bauxite declined by $9 billion, stressing that the country lost US$283 million in foreign currency earnings under the previous administration.
Noting that revenue from VAT increased by 43% under the previous administration, Ali stated, “In these five years these very people introduced more than 200 new taxes on the people of this country and they have the audacity to say remove VAT… They were hunting you down, they were hunting everyone down.”
Furthermore, he said that private consumption in those five years also
reduced by $77 billion. “What that means is that people did not have money to spend,” he explained, “that is why shops were closing, markets were closing; $77 billion that was available was no longer available in this five years to be spent because like vampires they were sucking the sap out of people, out of our country. This is the truth. This is the unavoidable truth that they don’t want to speak about.”
Ali told those gathered, decked out in their red to celebrate the life and legacies of the Jagans, that to understand the difference between now and then people must understand the hardships inflicted on Guyanese under the previous administration.
“That is why we cannot divorce Dr Jagan from the PPP and we cannot divorce the PPP from Dr Jagan. That is why the policies we pursue must be reflected in the core values and principles,” he said, adding that the party’s manifesto in 1992 spoke about food security, universal education, health, public infrastructure and investment in human capital “and that is what this government continues to do every single day…Doing it and delivering is living the legacy of Dr Cheddi Jagan.”
Delivering uniform grants and other grants to school children, the school feeding programmes, jobs to help the most vulnerable in society, building a healthcare system to deliver world-class healthcare, uplifting the lives of women and children, helping businesses to grow and expand and taking the leadership of food security in the Caribbean are “delivering on the legacy of Dr Cheddi Jagan,” he emphasised.
Ali also stressed the importance of pushing and developing the private sector as he noted that “a private sector that is dead is an economy that is dead” and his government does not want a dead private sector but rather a flourishing one for the benefit of all.
He also took the opportunity to point out that the PPP/C is a strong party that has created many legends such as Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo whom he said they should be proud of.
As he appealed for virtues of compassion and humility among citizens, President Irfaan Ali on Saturday night recommitted his government’s support for humanitarian efforts.
The Guest Speaker at the Rotary Club of Georgetown’s World Understanding Day, Ali also announced the donation of $2.5 million to aid the programmes of the nonprofit organisation.
His One Guyana initiative, the President pointed out, is one way his government is working towards achieving a Guyana that is united in pooling efforts to ensure compassionate and humble citizens committed to the holistic sustainable development of their country for generations to come.
“In your work moving forward, I am sure that you will have an understanding of the challenges the world is facing and will continue to face. Whether it is climate change, food security, or energy security … These challenges that we are going to face require organisations like yours, to play a stronger, more robust role,” Ali said.
“But to play that role you first have to have a full understanding how [challenges] evolve …to then position yourself and help navigate the consequences. I think this is where a lot of your future work … how you will partner with the government of Guyana,” he added.
“I want to say to you that we are ready to partner with you. We are ready to work hand in hand with you in confronting these challenges, through the various policies of the Government of Guyana. We are willing to partner with you, utilising your skills, within your organisation. To partner with you in supporting your projects financially and under this note I want to say that we are going to contribute $2.5 million to the completion of the building. And we want to integrate your work with what we are doing, because we want to bring a lot of young people in on the issue of food security.”
Explaining his One Guyana initiative, the President said he wanted to make clear that it was an apolitical assignment void of religious leanings or class structure but rooted in compassion and humility and the understanding that there are unique difficulties faced by persons.
“That is a core part of One Guyana [and] the elements of understanding are captured in two words – compassion and humility. If we cannot have compassion for each other and if we cannot see the pain of another person; if we cannot see each other as equal, if we cannot position ourselves in the difficult circumstances of someone else, you can never have an understanding of their situation… ,” he said.
One Guyana, he said, is founded on a goal that persons embracing it are trustworthy and must stand on moral and ethical values, where they denounce racism and embrace democracy.
Building trust and strengthening partnerships, Ali said, are needed for One Guyana to meet its true potential and persons must not be afraid to “break free of traditional barriers”.
In the end, he said, he hopes for a Guyana where its citizenry can “lift our heads and square our shoulders” with a certain level of pride when they show the world or hear of the harmonious, democratic society they have produced. “You do not need to be rich or poor to foster social harmony,” he posited.
Ali had told this newspaper that while he is leading the national One Guyana inclusivity initiative, it is in no way political and should be embraced by all those who wish to see this country develop holistically.
He said that it pains him when he hears anyone interlink politics with the social cohesion and inclusivity initiative.
“I’m building one Guyana. We are pushing for one Guyana in which all the people must benefit. Prosperity must come to every single home. If in building one Guyana, the whole country supports me, I’ll be very happy. But if in building one Guyana 10,000… persons do not support, then we have to continue to work to get those 10,000 persons to support one Guyana,” he said.
Saying that every citizen is a “shareholder”, Ali said they must “bring back home every single shareholder” and “do so in action, … in programmes and … in our personal and collective commitment to the value system of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic.”
“I’m not talking about one PPP or one party. I’m talking about one Guyana; a Guyana where development meets the aspirations of all the people of our country. One Guyana is not telling you to vote for one party. One Guyana is telling you to vote for Guyana. One Guyana is telling you to do everything to support and push Guyana forward.”
Ali explained that the initiative was birthed to bridge the divide in the country where all sides would understand that they are equally valuable if this country is to progress. He said it has never been seen as a party initiative or strategy.
“As a government, we have a responsibility for all the people — those who voted for us and those who did not vote for us because we all live in one Guyana,” he reasoned.
President Ali says racism will not succeed in Guyana