“We must not be enslaved by the past”; time to “kick ass” – Nagamootoo tells Lindeners

Last Updated on Sunday, 15 March 2015, 5:01 by GxMedia

The opposition coalition’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Moses Nagamootoo Saturday night  heaped criticism on the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) for harping back to bad governance by the People’s National Congress (PNC)-led administration.

Nagamootoo, a former long-serving member of the PPP up to 2011 when he resigned and joined the Alliance For Change (AFC) as its Vice Chairman, attacked the ruling party for resurrecting the issue of rigged elections from the 1970s to 1985.  “Those who talk about rigging must understand that we must not be enslaved by the past.”

“Today we must bury the hatred and hatchet of division or else we do not deserve to be free,”  he told about 3,000 persons who attended A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition’s first campaign rally for the May 11, 2015 general and regional elections.

The PPP has been waging an intensive and aggressive propaganda campaign, telling youths and reminding older folk of the bad days of PNC rule such as rigged elections, food shortages and human rights abuses.

The seasoned campaigner said Saturday’s rally was aimed at sending a strong signal that Linden was preparing to reunite with their Guyanese brothers and sisters in Port Mourant and Corentyne in the same way that bauxite workers had offered solidarity with striking sugar workers.

Several coalition speakers pounded the theme and importance of unity if the coalition is to win the upcoming polls.  While no mention was made of the People’s National Congress Reform’s (PNCR) seemingly healed rift in Linden, it was evident that PNCR Leader and Coalition Presidential Candidate, David Granger, Region 10 Chairman Sharma Solomon and former parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon went out of their way to hold hands on stage. No mention was made of PNCR  Region 10 Coordinator, Sandra Adams who sat in the back seat throughout the programme looking glum. Also appearing on stage at the end of the formal programme was former PNCR Leader, Robert Corbin who brokered a peace deal between the Kissoon and Adams factions.

The APNU+AFC Prime Ministerial candidate lashed back at Former President Bharrat Jagdeo with his own expression of “kick ass” by calling on Guyanese to  do him the same thing for squander mania on problematic projects like the US$200 million Skeldon Sugar Factory, the US$58 million Marriott Hotel and GUY$9 million on the failed construction of the Specialty Hospital. “The people of this country deserve to kick his __ (ass). It is the same ass-kicker who tried to spew racism and division in this country and to bring a divisive wedge between Granger and I and the APNU and the AFC,” said Nagamootoo.  

He promised to that an APNU+AFC-led government would re-examine and review the sugar industry by trying to save jobs and making the cash-strapped state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation viable.

 Jagdeo had remarked at the Cheddi and Janet Jagan commemorative event on March 8 that President Donald Ramotar was too democratic by engaging in meetings with the opposition and instead sometimes there is need to “kick some asses” to get things done.

Appealing to Lindeners and hundreds of persons who drove to the once thriving mining town to go out and vote for the opposition, Nagamootoo said the upcoming polls were aimed at stemming corruption, improving the treatment of rice farmers and ending discrimination, division, injustice and disunity that have been plaguing the country for decades.  “This campaign is not about what they want to tell people that it is about racism. This campaign is defeat the theft of the treasury. There is a bigger interest at stake in this election. This election is about the survival of our country,” he said.

Nagamootoo said “we are not afraid” of attempts to provoke, destroy and harm the opposition because “our cause is righteous.”