PPP will fight off any attempts to divide Guyanese – Dr Jagdeo
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has maintained that his party will fight against the racist diatribe of persons who seek to excite racial hostilities among the people of Guyana, and instigate ethnic strife.
He made the disclosure during a year-end press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, as he addressed the issue of the court-ordered summons served on New York-based social media commentator, Rickford Burke, earlier this month.
Dr Jagdeo reminded that the PPP recognises and upholds the principles of free speech and freedom of expression, but maintains its resolve to combat any attempts to sabotage the progress made thus far in fostering peace and equality in Guyanese society.
“We will fight people with all of our strength, whichever quarters they come from, who seek to divide our people along ethnic lines and to reverse the progress that we have made and who tried to take away our freedom. These are non-negotiable. We have no apology for fighting these individuals who tried to mislead our nation into doing things or clouding people’s judgement so that they make wrong choices,” he told media operatives.
According to the general secretary, Rickford Burke falls into this category of persons who live abroad and weaponise social media to forge ethnic divides and cause strife. He says that these persons should be held accountable for their words and actions that fall within the borders of criminality, and the fact that they live abroad does not make them above the law.
“They sew divisions, discord every single day by their comments. They use social media as a weapon against the government, but also against private citizens of our country. They use social media as a means of extorting people and clearly, this cannot be free speech, this can’t be protected speech, this cannot be this area of criminality because it’s criminal what they are doing that they should get a free pass whilst everyone else in this country would have to account to the laws of the country,” he said.
He said that the issue also lies with persons who fabricate information or deliberately use false information to mislead the public.
“People should be responsible for what they post and what they say. If you’re so certain that you have all the facts, then by all means you don’t have to worry about being sued or you don’t have to worry about legal action because you can defend yourself. Now people can say whatever they wish, Rickford Burke or whoever else can say whatever they wish, but if it’s seditious, if you’re in Guyana and you say this and it’s seditious, you have to face the court. They too must be held accountable,” he stressed.
Rickford Burke has been served with a defendant summons which requires him to present himself before the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court on March 28th, 2024 to answer for a series of charges.
On December 3, 2021, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) issued a wanted bulletin for Rickford Burke, in relation to several offences, which included the excitement of hostility or ill-will on the grounds of race, sedition, inciting the provocation of a breach of the peace, and inciting public terror.
A wanted bulletin was again issued on September 29, 2022 for Burke in relation to the offence of Conspiracy to Commit a Felony, Contrary to Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:01.