Jagdeo creating “racial incitement”- APNU’s Harmon
By Tracey Khan – Drakes
Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo (second from left) along with President Donald Ramotar, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, PPP PM Candidate, Elisabeth Harper and PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee. [GINA Photo]
[www.inewsguyana.com] – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) will not take lightly the statements made by Former President Bharrat Jagdeo on Sunday, March 08 at the Babu John Memorial Site to honour the work and life of the late President, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
The APNU has described Jagdeo’s speech as ‘racial incitement’.
The Partnership’s General Secretary, Joseph Harmon told iNews that the Party will not take this type of behavior, “sitting down.”
He noted that the APNU intends to write the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and other local and international agencies as it relates to the statements made by the Former President.
“We’re going to write the Guyana Human Rights Association, we’re going to write both local and international Bodies and make it clear what kind of behaviour this gentleman is engaging in during an election time and the behaviour which the PPP endorses and applause,” Harmon told iNews.
He further noted that Jagdeo’s speech “goes against the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) and other laws that were established in this country and should be condemned.”
General Secretary of the APNU, Joseph Harmon
“We are disappointed in what the former President would have said, we would have thought that after 2011 and all his cussing down that he would have learnt a lesson. The Guyanese people have gone pass that kind of behaviour in public and that they would reject that kind of racial incitement which his speech was intended to create.”
Additionally, Harmon says the Party intends to inform the relevant organisations that have conferred Jagdeo with honorary doctorates, with an aim to have them revoke it.
“Jagdeo should not be allowed to behave in that manner in Guyana in 2015.”
Some of Jagdeo’s statements at the event have been dubbed as “vulgar” given that it goes against Dr Jagan’s principles which the Party has incessantly swore to uphold.
In his scathing attack against the Opposition, he said: “The Opposition consistently shout about the racism of the PPP but they practice racism. They whisper campaigns. In the last elections they went to some of the Afro villages and beat some drums at six in the morning and say let us throw out these coolie people. Get up and go out and vote. Throw out the coolie people. That’s the kind of language they use. Anybody from our Party who uses that sort of language we’ll kick them out.”
Meanwhile, the APNU+AFC in a subsequent press release noted that it is not surprised by the tone of the PPP’s remembrance of Cheddi and Janet Jagan at the Babu John event.
According to the Coalition, “As was the case with previous such events it was once again transformed into a platform for cuss down politics.”
The release noted, “Regrettably even after five Presidencies and administering the affairs of this nation for almost a quarter of a century, the bankrupt PPP continues to be a party empty of ideas, unable to articulate a clear vision for Guyana’s development.”
According to the APNY + AFC, instead of forward looking, the PPP is trapped in the politics of the past and filled with leaders who are more comfortable “wallowing in the gutter of fear and ignorance rather than travelling the high road of National Unity and hope.”
“From President Donald Ramotar, to PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee to former President Bharrat Jagdeo they each demonstrated obscene contempt for the Guyanese people.
“Comments such as “kick up the asses” are symptomatic of Donald Ramotar and Bharrat Jagdeo public posture of disrespect and contempt for the Guyanese people. It speaks too to a streak and pattern of violence which has been introduced into PPP public statements. This follows comments by President Ramotar about the slapping of Amerindians. Despite a million dollar campaign to persuade the nation that they care the actions of the PPP are consistently contrary to that.”
The Coalition noted that what is even more disturbing is “Jagdeo’s appeal for racist politics. His comments about a certain group of people “being in” contradicts all the pleadings of the PPP being a multi-ethnic party representative of all Guyana.”
“APNU+AFC condemns this subliminal call for racist politics which is just a despicable modern call for apaan jhaat.”
