Guyana’s governing party, the People’s Progressive Party Civic is not happy that many Guyanese have been raising questions about the decision to have former President Bharrat Jagdeo flown out of the country on a private jet to be treated in Florida for dengue.
An emergency medical evacuation was activated two Saturdays ago for the former President as he complained about dengue related illnesses. With his best friend at his side, he was flown to a medical facility in Florida where he was treated and discharged within three days.
In a statement issued on Saturday the PPP said it has noted “disparaging and insensitive remarks made by various opposition politicians and their agents after the former President Bharrat Jagdeo took ill earlier this week”.
The party described criticism of the decision to medevac the former President out of the country as inhumane and sinister and said opposition spokespersons have been ‘continuing to spew hate and misinformation against the former president”.
According to the PPP, when Opposition Members took ill and needed state assistance, the party wished them the best.
“The PPP believes that any attempt to play down the seriousness of the health condition of the former president at that time, while questioning the need for him to travel abroad, must also be seen as an attack on Jagdeo’s fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution and right to access timely health care”, the statement said.
And the Government Information Agency in its own statement sought to criticize the Kaieteur News for its reporting on the Jagdeo medevac. GINA said “decency would have dictated a courteous get well, from any professional publication that understands the meaning of protocol, and what ethical reporting is all about.”
“Jagdeo’s tenure saw an unfolding of a plethora of socio-economic projects that have irrevocably laid the platform for, thereby setting into motion, the trans formative process that is so evident throughout Guyana. Led by this visionary former President, Guyana rose from a State that was once the ‘eye pass’ among its sister CARICOM island member States, where Guyanese were painfully disrespected, and the country a virtual pariah in the international community, to one that has been lauded by all the multilateral financial agencies, basking in their fulsome praises for what they have all described as responsible fiscal management of the local economy by the PPP/C government”, GINA said in its statement.
Several bloggers have openly criticized the medical evacuation of the former President for a non life threatening illness. They have pointed to the costs associated with such medical evacuations and have questioned whether tax payers will have to carry that cost. The former President who was known for openly calling out critics of his administration and name calling those who questioned his leadership has not been saying much about his illness and the treatment he received.
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