Minister of State Joe Harmon is in New York meeting with members of the Guyanese community.
On Saturday, he told a gathering that the current political situation in Guyana has been engineered by a “wrecking ball” who is out to wreck the country.
Harmon referred to the Opposition Leader as that “wrecking ball” and explained that with the Courts blocking Mr. Jagdeo from seeking a third term run for the Presidency, the Opposition Leader is now attempting to get in through the backdoor.
“This wrecking ball has wrecked our country, being in the position of President for 12 years and that is two and a half terms. And in spite of that, he went to the Court to get a third term…the Court said no, but that’s not enough for him. He has decided that he wants to be the President in the back, controlling the President in the front. He is positioning himself to do that and in the process, he has wrecked the country and our image overseas”, Harmon told the audience.
Mr. Harmon said since the coalition got into Government, it has “worked hard to improve the image of Guyana overseas and to make Guyanese proud again to identify as Guyanese”.
“We have worked hard to change that. We have worked to change from a narco state. We worked hard to change from life in Guyana is cheap and you could shoot a man in the street…we have worked hard to ensure every Guyanese life means something”, he noted.
According to Harmon, the coalition government values the life of every Guyanese citizen, whether they are home in Guyana or in the diaspora. He said the murderous rampage that took place under the Jagdeo presidency, no longer exists and there is a return to law and order.
Mr. Harmon said “anybody who believes they could kill 400 young men and women and still come back and say give me another chance, you are talking about something different”.
In full campaign style, the State Minister and General Secretary of the APNU said if the PPP wants to have one man mash up its party, that is the PPP’s business, “but we have a President who is a man of high personal values, who respects the rights of others and will not call anybody all kind of names”.
Without calling him by name and only referring to him as the “wrecking ball”, Harmon waded into the Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo and his statements about Guyana being in crisis.
Harmon said Guyana cannot allow itself to be seen as a country where the national discourse is to curse. He said Jagdeo’s behaviour is from a past time in Guyana’s history and it should not be supported.
Jagdeo has been calling on citizens to “chase out” members of the Government, when they visit communities across the country after March 21.
That date marks 90 days since the passage of the no-confidence motion. While the Constitution of Guyana calls for elections to be held within 90 days after a successful no-confidence motion, it also allows for the National Assembly to extend that period with a two-thirds vote.
Harmon described the current political situation in Guyana as a “contrived crisis”, noting that having “corrupted everything in Guyana” during its time in office, the Opposition was able to corrupt one of the Government Members of Parliament and get him to vote along with them in the no-confidence motion.
The Minister of State said the President and the Government have been very responsible since the no-confidence vote in the National Assembly and it is the President who has been reaching out to meet with the Opposition and the Elections Commission about elections this year.
He encouraged members of the diaspora to not be duped or motivated by “fake news”, but to always get the facts and the right information about what is taking place and make an analysis for themselves.
Minister Harmon made it clear that “Guyana is not in a crisis and Guyana has a sound, stable government and Guyana’s government respects the constitution and Guyana’s government respects the rule of law and we will never damage that. But at the the same time, people should not believe that they can pick and chose parts of the Constitution and engineer and create a crisis where none exists”.
Harmon repeated recent statements by the President that he will call proclaim an election date one he is guided by the Elections Commission about its readiness.
The Minister of State is scheduled to hold a number of other diaspora engagement meetings before heading back to Guyana later this week.
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