President, Dr Irfaan Ali’s decision to “hurriedly compensate vendors without any due diligence is yet another example of bad governance”, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has said.
In a statement to the press today, the party noted, “the tendency to throw money around like Santa Claus without investigation and proper facilitation by legitimate agencies amount to illegality. The treasury is not the personal bank account of the president.”
The foregoing is a reaction to the government’s move to give compensation to several Mon Repos Market vendors who were looted by some protestors during demonstrations along the East Coast of Demerara on Tuesday.
The protest was prompted by an inaccurate article that was published by the Guyana Daily News about the release of a cop who is accused of fatally shooting a civilian, Quindon Bacchus during an alleged sting operation. The Guyana Police Force (GPF) subsequently confirmed that the cop was still in custody. The Guyana Press Association (GPA) also issued a statement clarifying that the media outfit is not a “bona fide” member of the local press corp. The entity’s Editor-in-Chief, Ronald Singh, was later given the boot.
The WPA has condemned the unruly display of “thugs” during the protest, noting that their actions were not consistent with those of the grieving residents of Golden Grove. It reminded that the march passed several Indo-Guyanese communities without any hint of attacks on persons or property.
“We, therefore, condemn the utterances and posture of the president during his hasty visit to Mon Repos. We feel they send an ominous signal to the country. His clear attempt to characterize one community as victims and the other as aggressors is a very dangerous ploy that is sure to inflame an already tenuous situation,” the WPA said.
The party made it clear that it does not object to compensation to citizens for losses incurred, but insists that such action must follow the law and not be used as a “political weapon”.
“In this regard, we note that the same kind of haste was not employed in the case of vendors and other citizens at Golden Grove whose properties were damaged or destroyed by the police later the same day. To date, there has been no compensation granted to them. Equality before the law is a central tenet of any truly democratic society,” the party declared.
