Renewing his party’s commitment to nation building without fear or favour, President Bharrat Jagdeo made this declaration Wednesday evening. The Head of State was at the time speaking at a public forum held at Freedom House, Georgetown, with the theme “10th Anniversary of the PPP/C- A Decade of Democracy, Development and Good Governance.”

The PPP/C has come a far way from the legacy it inherited in 1992 when after 28 years of dictatorship under the People’s National Congress (PNC) it assumed office under the leadership of the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan. According to the President, the teachings of Dr. Cheddi Jagan have sustained the Party, as he fought for the rights of every Guyanese, and this policy is being carried on.

He noted that despite the many efforts of the Opposition, mainly the PNC/R to promote disunity and destabilise the Administration, the PPP/C is determined to stay in office unless, through fair and free elections, it is removed.

Referring to the many tactics of the PNC/R to make Guyana ungovernable, including the crime upsurge, the President said these are aimed at regaining political power and not in the interests of Guyanese.

“There is a bigger picture behind all of this and the picture reveals itself in this way; you move from one scene to the next. The first scene was ballot. You cannot displace the Government by ballot so you have mass demonstration. When you cannot mobilise people anymore, you move on to storming the Office of the President and when you cannot mobilise these people you leave them hanging again and move to another tactic -- drive fear in people. But there is an objective in all of this. The end game is power, political power and appeasement,” Mr Jagdeo said.

Fear, he noted, is causing people not to stand up against the Opposition and defend their rights, and as such they are blaming Government for the destruction of Guyana.

“Many people say to me: you have to link the PPP with the PNC because we know the PPP would not send thugs behind us. But if we come out and say this is wrong, the Opposition is wrong to go into Buxton and encourage people to do things, then maybe they will send people after us," the President said.

He called on citizens to defend their democratic right, as remaining quiet will not in any way see an end to the present political instability.

“If the citizens of this country, especially the Party supporters, feel that by giving in to their appeasement, that we are going to satisfy this lust, they are wrong or have peace, they are wrong. There is a lust for power that will only end when power is firmly in the hands of the PNC and the way to challenge that is not by giving in to every fear, but taking a stand because the policy of appeasement never works. It emboldens people when they feel they have an inch, and you give in to one thing, they shift the yardstick. They want more and more and more and eventually you gave in so much that you cannot even manage, so you might as well give up,” he added.

Giving up, the President said, is not an option for the PPP/C Administration.

“We are not giving up. Let me make that very clear. The only people that will take the power from this Party, are the people of this country. No one else. We are not going to give in whatever happens. So if people think by fear, they can appease these people they are wrong. We have to take a stand as a country and when there is a spade there, we cannot call it a shovel or an orange. We have to call it a spade,” he urged.