While the main Parliamentary Opposition continues to accuse the Irfaan Ali-led regime of deliberately sidelining Afro-Guyanese, the “facts” will prove the narrative to be “false”, says Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.
During his live “Issues in the News” programme last evening, the senior politician, in his usual style, lambasted the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) for the uncaring policies it implemented during its stint in office between 2015 and 2020. He was also quick to emphasize the party’s alleged role in an attempt to rig the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Nandlall noted that even with all the questionable political maneuverings and being caught redhanded in attempting to subvert the will of the people, the APNU+AFC has placed itself on a pedestal and now seeks to lecture the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on the dangers of poor governance.
The Coalition, since its defeat at the 2020 polls, has been on the forefront calling on the government to cease its “discrimination” against Afro-Guyanese.
During the $25,000 cash grant distribution exercise that was launched almost immediately after the PPP/C took office, the Coalition led the charge in identifying discrepancies. It claimed that hundreds of Afro-Guyanese were deliberately skipped.
Nandlall has agreed that there possibly exists a few persons who were unable to access the grants, but he refused to recognize ethnic discrimination as the motive. The Coalition is yet to provide to the government the names of those persons it claims were sidelined, despite the regime’s pleadings.
The AG said that despite the Coalition’s talk about ethnic discrimination, the truth of the matter is that his government has done more for Afro-Guyanese than the APNU+AFC ever did. An objective comparison, he said, will add credence to his claim.
“So, the mantra of discrimination has become rampant…And I say to them: go – not only from 2015 to 2020 but go from their years beyond, from 1966 to 1992 and you take any year of theirs and compare it to our (PPP/C) years and see from which government did Afro-Guyanese benefit the most…Check the statistics…There is no year that Guyanese of African descent got more scholarships in APNU or PNC governments than in any year under the PPP. Check it, you will see!” he said.
The politician said that the APNU+AFC continues to use its stronghold – Linden, Region 10 – as the poster child for ethnic discrimination when, in fact, the district flourished under successive PPP/C governments.
“They like to use Linden as an example. Well, check the budgetary allocation. In 2021, we gave Linden more resources than they did in any given year from 2015 to 2020. We have given more house lots in Linden from 2020 to now than they gave in five years. But they would go to Linden and say Linden is being discriminated against. Let me remind you of another statistic: up to now, the People of Guyana and the PPP government are paying the light bill for Linden – billions of dollars. These are facts, but they don’t want to talk facts; they spew a jaundiced narrative,” the AG remarked.
