The AFC notes with alarm the shameless and illegal campaigns of the Ramotar-led PPP to create ethnic and geographical apartheid in Guyana.
In the County of Berbice, the PPP has been stirring anti-African fears, conjuring up the so-called Black jumbie, to scare Indians and to woo them away from AFC.
Berbice is no longer the fiefdom of the PPP. When they voted AFC in 2011, Berbicians declared their freedom from racist domination. Berbice will not retreat. Never!
Today’s Guyana Times, a pro-PPP rag which also prints Mirror, the PPP’s broadsheet, simply confirmed what we knew all the time: PPP leaders have been talking to AFC supporters in Berbice, and peddling the racist, false and mischievous propaganda that the AFC has joined up with PNC.
In their racist frenzy, the PPP has unleashed its worse character attacks against AFC’s Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, Regional Parliamentarian Dr. Veerasammy Ramayya and myself, to hide the fact that it is Ramotar and the PPP who are now on their knees, begging Granger to talk or cut a deal with them.
We repeat our position: AFC has not agreed to form a pre-electoral coalition with APNU. But we have decided to work with APNU and all other patriotic political, business, labour, religious, human rights, women, youth and other civil society organizations in a broad front to fight against the PPP minority regime for the restoration of parliamentary democracy in Guyana.
The AFC is a genuine “Alliance” movement, and we favour unity and cooperation to isolate and defeat this wicked and corrupt PPP junta.
The AFC wishes to say that the law is clear: any person or organization that stirs up racial hatred is guilty of a criminal offense, and we call on the Guyana Elections Commission and the Guyana Police Force to mount an investigation into our claims of the PPP’s resort to racism and racial hatred in Berbice.
What is more disturbing, according to the self-annointed “beacon of truth”, is that both the President and the Prime Minister have been involved in partisan activities to re-capture lost votes in Berbice, in much the same way as serfs were sought after in Nikolai Gogol’s epic novel, “Dead Souls”.
It was reported that almost weekly these prime functionaries of State have been talking to AFC supporters to woo them back to the ruling party, obviously a partisan activity at state’s expense. In addition, we have seen the President in repeat jaunts to places like Paramakatoi where the organizers would greet him with PPP as distinct from our National Flags.
This is an abuse of presidential privilege, which must be condemned by the people in much the same way that Roger Luncheon is allowed to hide behind a public service post, to spew party propaganda and to regularly malign opposition parties. All other Government Ministers and Advisors have dominated the state media purely for PPP propaganda effects, to the total exclusion of the opposition parties. This is the only country in the Caribbean and the Commonwealth where opposition parties are not allowed on public media and are even denied paid programme time on state television.
But the “paramountcy of the party” is an adopted Stalinist disease, which the PPP has copied from Burnham. The PPP, however, surpassed Burnham as it has put its stamp not only on the state and crony media, but on the foreign service, permanent secretary and on regional executive positions.
Permanent Secretaries and REOs, such as Hydar Ally, Omar Sharieff, Nigel Dharamlall, Colin Croal and Ronald Harsawak are all sitting PPP Central Committee Members.
The PPP is in a frenzy to re-capture at least two regional seats, and they have chosen Region 6 and Region 8 as their hunting grounds. They are using state resources in an attempt to bribe potential voters, but their bottom house meetings in Essequibo and Berbice have shown that the PPP is despised and rejected, and no amount of bribe, cajoling and co-chaaring, would stop the PPP ship from sinking at coming elections.
AFC warns however that the racist campaign of the PPP would further undermine the social fabric of our nation, and excite racial insecurity and fear throughout Guyana.
Today, Guyana is at the crossroad of definition, whether we are only formally democratic, or descending swiftly into a racist, autocratic, authoritarian state
[Moses Nagamootoo, Alliance for Change, November 27, 2014.]
