Jagdeo condemns ‘vile, predictable’ calls after President’s New York visit

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday condemned divisive calls and actions from government critics following President Irfaan Ali’s visit to New York.

And according to him, those vile yet predictable actions must be further scrutinised and rejected by all since they only serve to instill fear in people.

The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), an organisation run by known People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) critic Rickford Burke, said individuals and businesses who engaged President Ali during his visit to Queens and Brooklyn would be boycotted in a statement. Persons who engaged Dr. Ali last week were also accused of “sucking up” to the President.

“In light of what happened recently when President Ali visited Brooklyn and engaged with our people who live there and visited some entities there, we had this vile but not unpredictable call by Burke and (activist, Mark) Benschop and the likes of them to boycott these premises.

“Most people will think that this may be an outlier event, that it’s unusual, but there is nothing unusual about what they did, it is part of a pattern,” Jagdeo said during a People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) press conference on Thursday.

The Vice President is the General Secretary of the party.

According to him, the PPP/C has largely kept its election campaigns “positive” instead of resorting to fearmongering. Contrastingly, he alleged that the main opposition party, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and its supporters like Burke, have engaged in divisive, problematic rhetoric.

“With very little to show achievement wise, they tend to campaign on a philosophy of fear and they have to instil fear in the people who vote for them against the others.

“They can’t say what they will offer to people,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

So he called on more Guyanese to scrutinise the rhetoric being espoused and condemn any untowards actions and statements.

Similarly, condemned attempts to sow any division among people, noting that people who purport to be leaders should instead focus on promoting unity and harmony.