| …but APNU says that report is a fabricationThe meeting has come and gone but the dust is yet to settle as the People’s Progressive PartyA scene from the meeting in Buxton on Thursday evening as APNU and PPP/C supporters jostled for attention at the front of the stageCivic is preparing to lodge complaints with the Guyana Elections Commission and to the International Community.The complaints to be lodged stem from what the ruling party calls attempts by the opposition to disrupt and intimidate persons who attended its public meeting in Buxton on Thursday.The complaints are also expected to include reports of acts of violence and vandalism such as the beating of PPP/C supporters in Buxton as well as the removal of bridges and gates in the troubled community by persons that expressed their support for the ruling administration.Party spokesperson, Robert Persaud, yesterday told media operatives that the meeting was considered a success for the party, firstly as one of the better attended meetings in the locale for the party and secondly because it reflected the community’s desire to be part of the PPP/C platform and to listen to its speakers on what the party has to offer.Persaud said that the meeting started well but that there was a group of persons who had been transported in and were assembled by the Market Tarmac; these caused the rancor.According to the PPP/C spokesman, following the meeting at the assembly point instructions were disseminated and the individuals then descended to the public meeting where they proceeded to assault and abuse persons as well as try to disrupt the meeting.But APNUs spokesperson Lance Carberry dismissed the notions by Persaud as nonsense. He said that the PPP/C is looking to create hysteria. One only needs to look at the advertisements being put in the public domain by the ruling party, he added.According to Carberry the reports that PPP/C supporters were beaten following the meeting are total fabrication.He said, too, that in the absence of hysteria the PPP/C is more than willing to create it.“They have no qualms about creating incident,” said Carberry.Persaud said that the PPP/C speakers and supports stood their ground during the attacks.He said that what is of concern to them is the fact that the activity was clearly centrally orchestrated and organized.He drew reference to the fact that a former Presidential aspirant of the People’s National Congress Reform was there during the commotion.Persaud was referring to Attorney at law, James Bond.He said that he considered the actions of the political opposition as an act of desperation adding that the PPP/C is aware that APNU and the Alliance For Change (AFC) would have been grossly disturbed by the positive response in Buxton to the PPP/C and as such activated the effort to disrupt the meeting.“We hope that these political parties will desist and not encourage such behaviour,” said Persaud who said that such action is not helpful to a peaceful election climate.But Carberry said that what they are trying to do is ensure that the APNU supporters are not embroiled in the nonsense.The party also issued a statement last evening in the wake of the reports by Persaud stating that the PPP/C Television advertisement that juxtaposes the enthusiastic supporters of APNU jostling to lift the Presidential Candidate, Brigadier (ret) David Granger, onAPNU Spokesperson lance CarberryNomination Day 2011, with one of blacks rioting, is dangerous racial profiling and race baiting.“The fact that the PPP uses its unrestricted State Media and other media time to play and replay these images and other images of the past, under the call “we must never go back there” is a dangerous and racist attempt to drive fear into the minds of all people, but particularly citizens of Indian descent.”The APNU statement says that, “Sadly, a Government that boasts of its 19 years of achievement is unable to portray its much touted “achievements” but, driven by panic, has to resort to this dangerous practice.”Persaud was adamant that every single Guyanese has the right to listen and to participate in the political process without any impediment regardless of which community they belong to.He said too that the PPP/C has always made it clear that they will visit every community and will not paint any of them with the paintbrush “of being in the opposition.”Persaud added, “we do not label any community as opposition or any other party…we see each community as partof the Guyanese family and as a national party we will go to every single community.”He said that he is sure that the positive response to the PPP/C in Buxton on Thursday evening has shocked and created a nightmare for the opposition, “and that is what their response was last (Thursday) night….but that is no excuse.”Persaud said that what is even worse is that there were acts of violence committed on their supporters as they left the meeting following its close.“Some of our supports were beaten as they left the meeting site.”Persaud was adamant that he wants to see APNU, AFC, GECOM, the International Community and Civil Society in general come out and “condemn such behaviour.”He reiterated that the party will be writing those bodies inclusive of GECOM and will include copies of video clips of the disruption in Buxton.“We will make available to the international community to see the type of harassment and intimidation that our supporters,” have to endure according to persaud.He said that the disruption that targeted the PPP/C and the people of Guyana in General constitutes an assault on the democratic spirit.The campaign spokesman also said that the actions constitute an attack on the willingness of people to participate freely and that they should not be intimidated.Among those making presentations for the ruling party on Thursday evening were Buxtonians Odinga Lumumba and Lennox Wood (Mboyo), Cabinet member and Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, Former Peoples National Congress Executive Member Joseph Hamilton, Gail Teixeira, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Presidential Candidate Donald Ramotar.Lumumba told those gathered that the event marked a history-making achievement, when the PPP/C decided to return to Buxton which was once a stronghold for the party. He said that Buxtonians must “look past the past” and join in the challenge of further progress for the country.One of the presenters Joseph Hamilton made passionate pleas but these appeared to fall on deaf ears, as at the time he was making his presentation, persons in the gathering were openly demonstrating their support for APNU Presidential Candidate David Granger.Dozens of posters bearing the image of David Granger appeared during the course of the meeting and it was a literal face-off as police kept the APNU group at bay as the PPP/C supporters waved their flags and donned their election garb.Home Affairs Minister Rohee had his task cut out for him to get across his message and at one point in time had to cleverly resort to the use of the party jingle in an attempt to distract the hecklers.Other speakers for the night, Prime Minister Hinds and Presidential Candidate Ramotar shared the same experience as they had battled with the gathering to have their messages heard.APNU has scheduled the first of its rallies for this weekend in Buxton.The party says that its member Parties and organizations within APNU are not afraid of a genuine examination of the brutal violence of the past in this country, including what it calls the awful violence of recent years in which both Indians and Africans were victims.“We acknowledge all of the suffering of Guyanese citizens, as a consequence of the murders and the extra-judicial killings of Guyanese of Indian and African origin.”The coalition says that it is more than the sum of its parts and is now a new entity here to usher in a new accountability and a new responsibility.“We do not need to hang our electoral quest on the peg of racial fear and racial incitement.”The APNU statement urges Guyanese to make the distinction between the old politics and the new struggle that it has engaged, for a genuine partnership of Guyanese of all ethnicities,Cheap NFL Jerseys, to build a Guyana of which we can all be proud. |
