Jagdeo believes Opposition ‘mentally lazy’ statement was racist, Walton-Desir disagrees.

AMANZA WALTON-DESIR RAISED A HORNET’S NEST locally when she branded
supporters of the ruling Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) coalition as a bunch of
“mentally lazy” constituents.
Walton-Desir, a lawyer by profession, and a first-time legislator in the opposition A Party for
National Unity, Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) party responded elegantly to charges that
her statement during a televised programme constituted racist rhetoric which should be roundly
condemned ultimately leading to her resignation from the Twelfth Parliament.
Many Guyanese, ordinary and prominent, took to the media jockeying for leverage scenting
blood in another local controversy. Among them were prominent businessman CEO of RK
Security and Commissioner of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) Mr. Roshan Khan and
PPP General Secretary former two-term President and now Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
“I think the statement by Amanza Desir was a racist statement. She believes that people who
supports the PPP, the base of the PPP, are basically stupid people, therefore calling them
mentally lazy. Its disparaging a whole group of people. The people who voted for the PPP at
least they have a track record to run on. We have a track record of achievements,” Jagdeo
declared at a press conference held at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, Liliendaal on the
East Coast Demerara (ECD).
Walton-Desir takes issue with the interpretation of Jagdeo and her other critics heaped on her
observation.
In an Op-ed she noted inter alia, “The PPP/C’s most recent attack on me is a frightening indication of
the fact that they are content to continue to stoke the fires of racial and ethnic strife in Guyana.”
“During the course of the discussion, I made the point that the maintenance of true freedom
requires that each citizen must be willing to assume the responsibility and the work that comes

with being truly free. I said that in this regard we have mentally lazy people and that the PPP/C
understood this very well, counts on it, and continues to capitalize on it.”
“At no time did I say Indo-Guyanese are mentally lazy,” the parliamentarian argued in the
editorial piece.
The APNU parliamentarian should be ashamed of herself for making such a racist statement,
Jagdeo insisted, noting it demonstrates her irresponsibility. He said attempts by her party to
defend those reprehensible utterances are also ‘purely racist’.
Jagdeo returned to the theme of the PNC and the APNU+AFC economic failures during its 1964
-1992 and 2015 -2020 tenures.
“As a matter of fact, she should be ashamed that they have no track record, you go through the
list. I’ve just given you a short list of things that they didn’t have plans for, that they made a
mess of or they were corrupt or clueless,” he declared.
Dr Jagdeo continued, “They have no track record and the period before that when they were in
government before they left office, we had the highest debt in the world. We had 913 percent
GDP, it's now less than 50 percent and we are using 153 percent of revenue. It was a bankrupt
country that they had left us (referring to 1992), half of our population fled,” said VP Jagdeo.
“We were seen as undemocratic and dictatorship globally before (October) 1992. Then they
came back and did similar thing: no track record on democracy, achievement, economic growth,
nothing. They can only campaign on race and consistent with that she (Walton-Desair) made that
statement”.
“She wants to make it look like people in the PPP base, Indian Guyanese basically,” Jagdeo
charged.
“It’s no doubt we try hard, we have had a platform where we campaign about the country, we
campaign in every area, we made it clear all of our plans for all the people of this country. They
cannot beat the PPP that led the independence struggle,” the VP boasted.

Walton-Desir rejected Jagdeo’s explanation of her words during the television programme.
“The interpretation that the PPP/C and their sycophant surrogates have chosen to place on my
words, confirms that they are content to continue the ruinous, racist, rhetoric that has plagued
Guyana since her independence and one which continues to arrest her development.
She continued: “Their propaganda machinery has been put into overdrive to paint me as a racist;
yet in their crazed frenzy to deliberately twist my words, they have forced every Guyanese to
ponder this one question: Is the PPP/C suggesting that they consider only Indo- Guyanese to be
their supporters”?
“It is no secret that since my entry onto the political landscape, I have made it clear that the issue
of race and race relations in Guyana is the single most defining challenge of our time, and how
we as a people choose to address it will determine the quality of life of the future generations of
Guyanese”.
“The PPP ensured that the struggles were made as a political party in this country and it was
never going to be achieved if we didn’t campaign for all of our people to develop all. That’s
what we are about! We don’t have to lie. Everything about them (APNU) is racism!
What Walton-Desir said is “a purely racist statement. Don’t worry about all the prevarication and
the justification afterwards That doesn’t mitigate what was a purely racist statement that Indo
Guyanese are basically mentally lazy,” Dr Jagdeo declared.
“We must resist allowing those not interested in peace and unity but only in power to think
for us; we must covet and promote independence of thought and we must be willing to put
in the time and effort required to arrive at informed decisions and conclusions. We must
make friends with facts and reject the miasmic mutterings of mendacious men,” Walton-
Desir contended.