APNU leaves Dr Roopnaraine, Nestor in the cold after boycott calls

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Monday refused to endorse comments made by its Vice Chairman Dr Rupert Roopnaraine and former People’s National Congress (PNC) Member of Parliament Lurlene Nestor which called for a boycott of businesses and sections of the free media here if they refused to endorse the opposition’s stance on the President’s decision to prorogue Parliament.

When contacted APNU’s General Secretary Joseph Harmon would only say that the shadow cabinet was expected to discuss the comments made by Dr Roopnaraine at a rally on Friday last.

Roopnaraine has been under significant pressure from several sections of the society after he called for Guyanese to boycott the Guyana Times and other media houses because they are not expressing views and opinions which he supports.

In fact, the Government and several civil society organisation have expressed worry over Dr Roopnaraine’s comments while issuing strong condemnations following his brutish attack on press freedom.

Leaving Dr Roopnaraine in the cold since Friday, Harmon said the discussion is set for Wednesday and declined to comment further on the matter. No other APNU parliamentarian or politician has come to his defense since he made the statements.

Dr Roopnarine also told the gathering of persons to desist from purchasing the Guyana Times and Chronicle and not to look at the National Communications Network (NCN) Channel 11.

This statement caused Attorney General Anil Nandlall to ask the question of whether press freedom is permissible to only one set of media operatives.

Nandlall said Roopnarine’s statement is the most unfortunate statement for a seasoned and elder politician to make.

He went on to state that much a more responsible statement was expected from Dr Roopnarine.

“His remarks constitute nothing less than an assault on the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of the press and the right of the Guyanese citizens to receive information. I do not expect the Opposition to be supportive of these news agencies, but at a minimum they should respect their right to publish and the right of the Guyanese people to receive that which is published,” Nandlall said.

NCN has since said it views Dr Roopnarine’s attack as unwarranted and with utter disgust. It agency further stated that the comment exposes the hypocrisy of the combined opposition.

NCN said in the past years from 2012 to 2014, consecutively, the combined Opposition has cut the budgetary allocations of the agency after accusing them of not providing coverage. NCN further said that during the 2014 budget, the party attempted to forcefully remove one of its Member of Parliament from a live programme being aired on the Channel.

Distance

Meanwhile, in a rushed statement on Monday, the main Opposition party distanced itself and denied adopting a policy which called for a boycott of any businesses in Guyana.

It also denied calling for a boycott of business in Guyana. “Any remarks made to that effect are inconsistent with the position of APNU,” the coalition said.

APNU seemd forced to release the statement after public outrage over comments made by former Nestor on social media.

Nestor said in a Facebook post that her party had begun an operation on Saturday under the slogan, “Operation Sus-Out and Boycott”.

“We will ask every business in Guyana to place a banner or a placard on their business which reads, “WE SAY NO TO PPP/C DICTATORSHIP”, the post read.

She said APNU would be asking and not coercing, begging or forcing anybody to do so.
She noted that failure to erect the slogan in a prominent place in their businesses would result in an immediate boycott which would be orchestrated by the APNU.

Ultimatum

“We give them by Monday to get this notice up, failure to have this visible notice will result in us not buying from them, we did it before and we can do it again… we talking to the big ones from Courts, Bounty, Banks, DDL, Fish Shop, all market stall holders and vendors, all businesses on Regent Street, Water Street. We talking to every business from the largest to the smallest,’’ she explained.
The APNU member said failure on any part of these businesses to do as instructed will indicate that they are PPP/C supporters and ‘‘are in bed with the dictatorial PPP/C regime”.