General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo rubbished the false promises laid out in “propaganda pieces” of the APNU+AFC Coalition Opposition and underlined that the ruling PPP party and Government are on track to keeping their manifesto promises.
Speaking at his weekly party press conference, Dr Jagdeo expressed disappointment in the efforts of APNU in trying to mislead Guyanese into thinking that their ideas were groundbreaking and innovative.
He mentioned that the new pieces being circulated by the coalition is similar to their manifesto in 2015 and gave examples of how they contradicted the very manifesto after ascending into government.
“They said that they would establish a national cane workers’ and cane farmers’ conference in the first 100 days. Well, you know what we got? Seven thousand sugar workers without a job,” the GS reminded.
Dr Jagdeo further shed light on APNU’s failure to liberalise the telecommunications sector.
“…liberalization of telecoms and ICT sectors… the whole five years they didn’t do it. We did that when we got back in office. Three months after we got back in office. We had left even the legislation for them. In fact, the legislation was already tabled in parliament. They never did it in the five years, and they promised it in 100 days.”
These failures, as Dr Jagdeo pointed out, are in stark comparison to the workings of the PPP/C Government, which is on track to fulfilling all of its promises as mentioned in its 2020 manifesto.
Much headway has been made in various sectors and industries in the country and most notably, in the housing sector, which the GS guaranteed that the Government is on track to fulfilling its promise of distributing 50,000 house lots to Guyanese.
“For four years, if you look at everything we’ve promised in our manifesto – housing, fifty thousand. We’re already on track to deliver that; scholarships, 20,000 in our manifesto, we already have twenty-eight thousand people studying and another 22, 000 through BIT, WIIN, and GROW… paid for, fully, by the Government of Guyana. We promised free university education in five years, we’re on course to delivering that,” Dr Jagdeo underscored.
Dr Jagdeo continued listing other aspects of the manifesto that have been fulfilled or is on its way to fulfillment. These would include the return of the joint services bonus, the reversal on the 200 taxes imposed by the previous government, the doubling of the old age pension, which would be done by next year, and the restoration and advancement of the students’ cash grant.
The rhetoric of the APNU+AFC, as pointed out by Dr Jagdeo is worn out and finds very few still falling prey to it, while reaffirming that the PPP/C is a party that is making good on their promises as they are in the best interest of all Guyanese.