APNU+AFC Presidential Candidate David Granger

Nagamootoo tells NY audience:

In the face of concerns that it would be conned by its coalition partner the Alliance For Change  (AFC) said it is prepared to pick up its 12 seats and walk away if there are major disagreements that go against the spirit of the Cummingsburg Accord.

These comments were made by Moses Nagamootoo to a large Indian-Guyanese audience in Queens New York Sunday evening during a fundraising event. The event was picketed by supporters of the People’s Progressive Party who described Nagamotoo as a “Nemakharan” (betrayer) and David Granger as someone with “blood on his hands”

Nagamootoo indicated that, even behind the promotion for a coalition of national unity, the AFC in trying to safeguard itself from any potential fallout between the two parties has developed the necessary provisions in the event that should happen. “The party leader Khemraj Ramjattan is saying this,

we’re not saying this to big up ourselves, we’re not saying this as a threat, but we’re saying this that we hold a guarantee that if things don’t go well,” he declared.

APNU+AFC Prime Ministerial Candidate Moses Nagamootoo

The Cummingsburg Agreement, which was signed between the two parties,

assured the AFC 12 seats in the 65 seat Parliament-

that is 36 per cent of the combined seats by the two parties in the 10th Parliament.

Nagamootoo firmly stated that if legal proceedings should follow any dispute within the coalition,

then the AFC will fight to maintain their 12 seats. “…

(If David Granger) and I will have to find legal proceedings for a divorce,

I’m taking my property with me,” he contended.

Nagamootoo then advised that the preparations should not be taken as a threat but as a “safety net” for the AFC.

“It could happen, we’re human beings but we will try to work together to build trust, to build confidence and to promote relationship that would make this thing work,” he assured.

Both parties had admitted to giving up some of their demands in order to make the alliance work however, when further questioned about the demands the parties were forced to abandon during the negotiation process, the coalition declined to disclose.

During his address at the recent Babu Jaan memorial former President, Bharrat Jagdeo had lambasted the “Cummingsburg Accord”, which he said will be to the greatest disadvantage of the AFC.  He described as “naïve and desperate”, the move by the junior political Opposition party to join forces with the People’s National Congress  Reform-dominated A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and its Leader David Granger, whom he said still strongly embraced the Burnhamite philosophies of the age-old political unit.  “It must be naivety and desperation on the part of the AFC to link up with APNU, because they have betrayed all those people who were misled to believe that Ramjattan and Nagamootoo really cared about them. They care for themselves. They have secured vice president and the Prime Ministerial positions for themselves”.

Rude awakening

Jagdeo had warned that the AFC was in for a “rude awakening”, and would suffer a similar fate to that of The United Force (UF). “They are so naïve …. When the leader of the list decides who goes to Parliament and they are going to be getting a rude awakening. The UF had it in the past and they will have it because they don’t have any leverage anymore, there is no more AFC after nomination. There is PNC, one ticket… Don’t worry about the name AFC-APNU; there is one name, one list of candidates and one head of list,” Jagdeo related, continuing that if the party is thrown out of the coalition, “they can’t do anything about it because they have no leverage. It is naivety and ambition; blind ambition that cause them to even ignore sensibility,” the former President declared.

Human Development

Meanwhile, during his address to the Diaspora, Nagamootoo shared his views for human development in Guyana.  He highlighted that 25 per cent of “able-bodied people” are unemployed while roughly 26 per cent are living in extreme poverty and charged that the coalition will change that situation by providing jobs for young people. He explained that the coalition is eyeing properties in Berbice to develop into farming lands, is prepared to launch a thorough investigation into the sugar industry and is willing to establish a bank where small investors can garner capital to start their own business.

On the other hand, presidential candidate of the coalition David Granger, told the Diaspora that his plan for human development includes addressing the issue of school dropouts and focusing on the education sector. Granger also had plans for establishing development banks to assist ordinary Guyanese people with micro financing.

Dear Editor,

While 92 young doctors sit languishing at home, make no mistake, this is another of the wicked anti-Jagdeo ploy by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC). It is incredibly stupid, arrogant and a good example of neglect and uncaring that Guyana is being told that 92 young professionals, doctors, are sitting at home waiting for employment by APNU/AFC. What is totally objectionable is that the Public Health Minister’s response to the tragedy of 92 unemployed doctors, children of ordinary people, is that it is another lie in the “stupifying” long list of lies APNU/AFC has come to be known for in just over five months in Government. Another lie, another frightening example of arrogance that has been the most obvious character of APNU/AFC in the five months of being in Government! Dr Norton’s explanation is that APNU/AFC is unaware of the fact that 92 doctors are sitting at home unemployed. We know this is a lie because it is impossible that they did not know. The truth is that they did not find time to formally employ the young people we sent to Cuba to become doctors and it is another concrete example of them being incompetent and not deserving of being Guyana’s Government for the next five years. Many of the doctors have been calling and are being told that it might happen soon. At their orientation two months ago, the Minister himself told them that their employment is immediate and non-negotiable. The young doctors were told that they must serve with pride and serve their country which had given them the opportunity to study and become doctors. The Minister, however, now says he was unaware. This is a barefaced lie. What exactly is he unaware of? Does he know that many of the hospitals in Guyana have no medicine? I wonder if the Minister knows that the 2015 budget did not cater for the employment of the 92 doctors. Was it because the Ministry did not know that these doctors would graduate and be available for work at least since August? The truth is that they are playing for time since they made no provisions to employ these doctors. It cannot be that they did not have the time to focus on this very necessary and needed action and could not be that Ministers were not being paid enough. After all, President David Granger said to the people that the hefty pay increases was to ensure efficiency of the Cabinet. Is this the quality of efficiency we are paying APNU/AFC Cabinet for? The young doctors remain enthusiastic because they want to demonstrate their skills to the Guyanese public; they want to pay back for the opportunities Guyana has given them, since many of them come from poor family backgrounds. For these young doctors, it is not about politics, who they support etc, it is about paying back with gratitude. But APNU/AFC has so far deferred the right of these young men and women to practice their profession and show our people how grateful they are. While the doctors are sitting at home, impatient and wondering what will happen to them, hundreds of health centres do not benefit from the services of doctors and many hospitals still provide Medex-led medical services. It is at a time when the emergency rooms at the Georgetown Public Hospital, the regional and district hospitals have long lines of people waiting unconscionably long times to see doctors because the hospitals are short of staff. It is not like the Cabinet is so busy with urgent work that they simply could not get this simple act done. They seem to have lots of time to take care of themselves and pursue politics of revenge and witchhunting. APNU/AFC have had time to give themselves a colossal pay increase, unheard of anywhere in the Caribbean Community (Caricom), making them among the highest paid Cabinet in Caricom. Certainly, Guyana’s Cabinet is paid at all levels more than the Cabinet of Caricom’s richest nation, Trinidad and Tobago. They have had time for various self-serving, costly activities, such as celebrations, costing millions of dollars. APNU/AFC had an unbelievable amount of time to establish Commissions of Inquiry and forensic audit teams, comprised of their friends, to do work already completed, with quite generous multimillion-dollar payments. Three audit contracts which were awarded without due process cost over $150 million. They have had time to conduct the worse witchhunt in Caricom’s history, the consequence of which is that thousands of Guyanese have been forced into poverty because APNU/AFC has terminated their employment on the basis that the Amerindians did not vote for them and in some cases just because they were East Indians or Afro-Guyanese suspected of supporting the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). I am wondering, in fact, if the delay in employing 92 doctors is not related to the fact that these doctors graduated from a PPP programme that sent more than 1000 young Guyanese of all ethnic backgrounds from across Guyana to Cuba to study medicine. I am wondering if this is another of APNU/AFC’s wicked anti-Jagdeo platform. If this is an anti-Jagdeo platform, it is repugnant because it is not Jagdeo they are punishing; it is 92 young people and their families and it is the thousands of people around the country who need the service of these young doctors. The programme between Guyana and Cuba to allow our young people to study medicine was nurtured by President Jagdeo himself. I remain very proud of this programme. The hundreds of young doctors who are providing high quality services around the country have shown that this was a visionary programme. It is up to APNU/AFC to build on the successes of this programme for the sake of our people and our country. By the way, the salaries and benefits for the 92 doctors for the remaining of the year can be paid for by just one month of Nagamootoo’s salary and benefits. I urge that the 92 doctors be employed now with immediate effect. I urge that the doctors be employed with a retroactive date to make up for the neglect by APNU/AFC whose incompetence and uncaring behaviour must not be at the expense of the Guyanese people.

Yours truly, Dr Leslie Ramsammy