Georgetown: The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on Wednesday lashed out at the Opposition coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) for its lack of vision and credibility in its leaked Manifesto.
Speaking at a news conference at Freedom House, the PPP’s headquarters, Ministers of Finance and Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Ashni Singh and Dr Frank Anthony, compared and contrasted the manifestos of the APNU/AFC and the PPP/C.
They noted that while the coalition has said that the document was leaked, they believe that the document was the final one, but its lack of vision and credibility embarrassed the Opposition and as such, it was rushing to disassociate themselves from the policy document.
According to the Ministers, while the claim might be that the manifesto was leaked and unofficial, the PPP/C was of the strong belief that it was the original since all of the Opposition’s advertisements in the media were extracted and taken from the document.
Dr Singh said that the Opposition, in its leaked manifesto, had made promises which it would not be able to fulfil, in direct contrast to the PPP, which has made promises which are achievable and implementable. “Nothing in the document can be believed and the APNU/AFC has no intention of implementing any of the initiatives outlined.”
In dubbing the promises unrealistic, Dr Singh went on to point out the ways in which they reeked of impossibility.
According to him, the APNU/AFC coalition and its Prime Ministerial Candidate Moses Nagamootoo have been harping constantly that they would reduce the powers of the President should they be elected, but while Nagamootoo was boasting of powers which would be transferred to him, Presidential Candidate David Granger himself has remained mum on the issue while the manifesto paints a different picture.
Citing an excerpt from the Guyana Review, a feature in another section of the media, Singh said that Granger was pointedly asked about the reduction of presidential powers, but sidestepped the question by talking about education and security.
“Clearly, Mr Granger has no intention of reducing any presidential powers because when asked about it, he goes off and speak about education and national security and deliberately sidesteps the matter of presidential powers, while Mr Nagamootoo going around saying publicly to the people of Guyana that Mr Granger intends to hand over presidential powers to the Prime Minister,” the Finance Minister said.
He further pointed out that while the APNU/AFC has been going into the villages of sugar workers, saying that they will save the sugar industry; in the leaked manifesto, it states that “the sugar lands are tailor-made for aquaculture ponds” and that it was a lucrative activity.
Insult
In further lashing out at the Opposition, the Finance Minister told media operatives that it was an insult to the electorates that with mere days to go, the Opposition was yet to launch its manifesto, and to lay its policies on the table. He noted that the coalition has thus far only been able to settle on positions in the alliance, but could not settle on policies for the better of the country.
“To date, we have not seen the final document for the APNU+AFC in the event it was indeed leaked. I am asking the Opposition when will the nation see your final manifesto? We have seen how you will be distributing the spoils of power, but we have not seen as yet, we are days away from elections and we have not seen their final manifesto,” Dr Singh said.
“Ironically, the APNU/AFC is the party that has to pretend it occupies the high moral ground and they are the party that likes to say you should vote on the issue, but they are still to present their policy on the issues. It is telling that they can hammer out the distribution of ministerial offices, but cannot hammer out their policies on issues,” he further expressed.
Meanwhile, Dr Anthony, in comparing the PPP/C’s manifesto to the leaked version of the APNU/AFC’s, outlined several major developmental programmes the incumbent had for the area of Sport while pointing out that the APNU/AFC had none detailed in theirs.
“When we look at sport, the PPP has outlined a number of areas we believe we can make advancements in sports … for example, physical education in all schools; that is something we feel strongly about and we want to make this happen. We also want to develop the sports facilities within the school system. Every school must have these types of facilities. When you look at the manifesto of the APNU+AFC, you do not see anything for that area…,” Anthony said.
He further pointed out that the incumbent was looking to develop community sports facilities since these play a major part in social cohesion; it will invest in long-term athlete development programmes as well as sports tourism by increasing the number of bids to international sports events.
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