On this sacred day, The GPP sends greetings to our Muslim brethren all over the world especially the Guyanese everywhere both in and out of our beautiful nation.

For us in Guyana, on this day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, is overshadowed by the suffering and sorrow of so many of our citizens who still live below the poverty line.  We hope that, wherever Guyanese Muslim men and women foregather, we pledge to work together for a better today for all our people.

The lesson of Ibrahim’s unwavering obedience to Allah to sacrifice his own son should teach us the lesson to be obedient. The spirit of sacrifice as was shown by Ibrahim, God would rend the clouds and shower on us his blessing as a nation if we believe in him.

It is a fitting opportunity for us to recognise and celebrate the common ground between faiths and look to what unites rather than divides us.

Let us also take time to share some of the grief our brothers and sisters in Pakistan and other places who are suffering even while we celebrate with our families

 GPP wishes all a happy Eid-ul-Adha

This Remembrance Day, we express sincere gratitude to our service members, and profound appreciation for selfless families who, through their unflagging support for their loved ones who wear the cloth of Guyana and the free world, also sacrifice for our country. Through their selflessness, our military members and families uphold our nation’s ideals, and honour the sacrifice of those who came before. We, as a nation, thank them all.

We proudly wear the red “Poppy” as we remember our fallen comrades.   Peter Ramsaroop, Presidential Candidate for the Guyana’s People Partnership said “As a war veteran himself, he understands the sacrifice many have gone through for a cause and also the families of our past service men and women and those who proudly serve in our armed forces today”   He also said those serving the free world as he did are proud to know we have fought for the freedom of others.

Let us not forget.

Peter Ramsaroop attends Remembrance Day Ceremony (Picture)

This new policy of the PPP Government of Guyana is an international admission of their incompetence and inability to control corruption. The taxes of Guyanese are being used to pay for Guyanese diplomatic representation in capitals and major cities worldwide.

Part of the services these diplomatic representatives are expected to provide is the initial processing of passport applications of Guyanese living abroad. These passport services at Guyanese consular offices can be provided on a cost recovery basis so they would not constitute any additional burden on Guyanese taxpayers.  

Apart from demonstrating incompetence we wonder if this new passport policy is a means of lowering the number of Guyanese who register to vote.  GPP calls for the government to immediately get rid of this stupid policy. We hope the Government of Norway is paying attention in relation to the money they plan to pay over to the corrupt and incompetent PPP/C government.

A flyer was distributed to over a thousand students asking them to join in the campaign.  The following were portions of the Flyer:

Suspend Amaila Falls Project -  GPP Calls for localized hydroelectricity plants 

The Guyana’s People Partnership (GPP) 2011 presidential candidate Peter Ramsaroop today in speaking to supporters admonishes the lavish plans for the Amaila Falls hydroelectric project by the government as a poor decision to solve the current energy woes, although he said that it should still be on the list as a long term capital project.   He said it was appalling that the government would give a contractor with no experience fifteen million (US) dollars just to build an access road when multiple hydro plants can be built with just the access road money.

Ramsaroop said that multiple hydro plants must be developed in areas such as the Bartica Triangle and the Region 10 area.   The rational for this is that these are the areas that we should be concentrating on relocating the coastal plains to and cheaper energy in those areas can stimulate growth in many new industries.

 Ramsaroop emphasized that the areas in Region 7 must become a major economic zone for Guyana. This is the area west of the Essequibo River.  It is accessible by river and road.  The Bartica-Potaro Road passes through the area on the watershed between the Mazaruni and the Essequibo Rivers.  The Bartica Township occupies the apex of the Bartica Triangle.   The three falls as recommend in the German Study are Teperu, Big Barabara and Ikunbisi.    In Region 10 he said the falls at Tiger Hill will change that depressed area rapidly.

Areas for hydropower plants: Source German Study April 2003  

In addition We must also look at returning some of the lands to major agriculture development and with the energy solutions proposed , move into large-scale production in areas such as citrus.  He said in the 1950s, the Lima Estate near Agatash village, exported barrels of lime-juice to England. Industries such as these create jobs for those who do not want to go into mining. 

The GPP believes that developing new major roads into our forest and asphalting existing major roads, as one logger indicated, will also create new tourism opportunities. In addition, the miners should be part of rebuilding our environment such as re-planting trees that may have been destroyed. Certain areas in this zone should also be protected from any mining. This is a beautiful region and a major tourism opportunity waiting to be developed in a sustainable fashion.  Bartica has a unique value in areas such as eco-tourism and forestry. If we focus on these projects, today many of the tourist operators would have had clean, cheap renewable energy for the resorts and populations in the vicinity.

 The Ikuribisi Falls which is located about 29km upstream of Bartica was identified as a key project. The government keeps waiting for the big one when many of these smaller hydro projects could have been completed. Some of these studies go back to 1984 and the site at Barabara could have produced 170kw. These projects can significantly improve the Bartica Triangle and make this area a key development zone for our nation.  He said  a guarantee a price to generators of hydro power is between US $0.12 cents and US$0.15 cents per kilowatt hour must be the target.  He stressed that the current 15M price tag alone for the access road to Amaila Falls could have done at least two complete small hydro plants in these areas.

Ramsaroop said at the end of the day that the Partnership plans are focus  on the creation of jobs, diversification of the economy and ensuring that the lives of our citizens are getting better and not pushing such dictatorial policies as recently targeted at miners. He said practical solutions to achieve are by smaller localized hydro electric plants.

End:

With the announcement of an independent bid for the presidency, businessman Peter Ramsaroop is banking on the support of young voters, saying that they are an untapped constituency that could shift the balance of power at next year’s election.

“These politicians are stuck in a time warp,” Ramsaroop told Stabroek News. “And I tell them, if you do the same old thing, the same old way, you will get the same old results. It’s time for us to think differently.”

Peter Ramsaroop

Ramsaroop, a founding member of the Reform component of the PNCR and former CEO of the AFC, launched his bid under a “People’s Partnership” movement he recently started. He admitted that traditionally an independent bid would be unrealistic but said with changing demographics and particularly the growth of new voters, there is room for new thinking. “Not barring our historical perspectives, our racial voting patterns… I really believe that there is an opening to excite the new generation, that it’s time for them to put the future back in their hands,” he explained.

He drew a distinction between himself and “career politicians who want to be president,” saying that those who have been around for decades are not focusing on the needs of the people. He charged that as a result of the disconnect between politicians and the working people, there is an absence of advocacy for “the ordinary man”. He cited the state of the University of Guyana as an example, arguing that while it is the country’s premiere educational institution, it has suffered from a lack of investment that calls into question how the students would lead the country into the future.

Ramsaroop said that he still believed that a united coalition or national government of unity is the only way towards radical economic transformation for the country. In this respect, he said the People’s Partnership is willing to work with anyone committed to make the country better, regardless of political affiliation. “Keep your party card, I don’t care if you’re PPP, PNC or AFC, but if you believe our plan can help you make Guyana better, then vote for us,” he said. He added that this was the reason for the movement’s slogan, ‘Together We Will’. “Yes, it sounds like fluff, it sounds like dream, but it’s a dream that we can believe in,” he added.

He said he was also open to working along with other parties and in the event that he participates in an alliance for the polls he would be would not insist on being the presidential candidate. He explained, “All of us can’t be at the top. My goal is to make sure we are on the team to shape policies that makes people’s lives better and give our children a better future.”

He is in support of public debates by the presidential candidates to allow the people to determine the best candidates. He said people should be allowed to ask questions and not just accept the candidates from the respective parties.

According to Ramsaroop, the WPA, ROAR-Guyana and the AFC have tested the waters as alternatives to the PPP/C and PNCR.
However, he said that the People’s Partnership would seek to exploit the generation change, as opposed to seeking to draw from the base support of either of the two major parties.  He also emphasised that he would not engage in adversarial politics, saying that while the PPP/C and the PNCR might suffer from bad leadership and policies, they also have something to offer. “And that’s why I say I have no problem with Mr (Bharrat) Jagdeo, he did his best to hold the country in an international global crisis. Yes, he had a lot of support from the underground economy, from remittances and all those things that helped him do it,” he said.

He added that with a clear absence of capable leadership within the PPP to take up the presidency, there remains a need to find someone to radically transform the economy. “And that is where I believe the skill sets of me and others come into play,” he said. “To take the foundation and build it to the next level.”

Ramsaroop said while the PPP has had nearly 20 years in office, people’s lives have not gotten better. He said while there has been some infrastructure and social sector development, there have been no real policies to transform the economy to allow for massive employment and career progression. He noted that he has written about the possibilities of greater links with Brazil, which he said could usher in radical change.

He also said than instead of taking Norway’s money for the LCDS, the country should negotiate for an investment in jobs. “Make them build two ships here. That’s 20,000 jobs. If you are the best ship builder in the world, we’ve got the ports and we’ve got the water, come do it right here,” he said. “We’ve got to get away from selling our country out for cheap dollars. We need to learn to negotiate hard… We can have 30,000, or 40,000 of us working and gaining experience, knowledge, engineering, training, those are the type of things we need to negotiate….”

He was also critical of the government’s lack of focus on hydropower, saying that it has been pursuing the Amaila Falls project as pipe dream while not focusing on the development of hydro electric plants in other areas around the country. As a result, he said it is unlikely to radically change the economy in the way of supporting expansion in the manufacturing sector, where jobs are.

6 November 2010

Today, Peter Ramsaroop and a team of individuals from the People’s Partnership visited a poor area on the East Bank of Demerara.    Residents voiced their concerns on the high cost of living especially the heave burden of the Value Added Taxes (VAT) and Electricity cost. 

They emphasised that they just want the basic things in life such as housing, better education for their children and the ability to get work.  One parent said she is appalled at the conditions of Supply Primary School where many students did not even have a place to sit.  More visits and community activities are planned for ths area.