GEORGETOWN, Guyana – As the political race heats up, the We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) is accusing President Irfaan Ali and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of recycling their policy ideas without credit, claiming the ruling party has repackaged WIN’s signature proposals and passed them off as its own.
The accusation came one day after President Ali unveiled a slate of new promises during a live national address, proposals that, according to WIN, bear an uncanny resemblance to plans already published in their own manifesto. From housing subsidies to small business support and healthcare reforms, WIN says the overlap is too extensive to be coincidence.
“What Guyanese witnessed was not a policy speech, but a recycled performance,” the party said in a scathing statement. “President Ali echoed major sections of our manifesto almost word for word, only without the specifics, without the numbers, and without a single nod of attribution.”
Housing: Echoes or Imitation?
Housing was one of the most contested points. In his address, President Ali promised more support for low-income families to access homeownership, including subsidies and direct assistance. But WIN says these plans mirror its already-published proposal to slash house lot prices by 40% for minimum wage earners and offer foundational housing grants ranging from $500,000 to $700,000.
“The difference is that we gave the numbers. We gave the plan. The President just gave the performance,” the party said, criticising what it called “a repackaging without originality.”
SME Support and Part-Time Work: Mirror Image?
WIN also pointed out that Ali’s pledges to increase support for small and medium enterprises and part-time workers closely align with the strategies outlined in the WIN manifesto weeks earlier. While the PPP’s language was more general, the opposition party insists the content reflects a clear case of appropriation.
“This is a pattern,” WIN stated. “The government dismissed our manifesto as fiction when we launched it, now they’re picking it apart and reading from it like a script.”
Healthcare: Tragedy Meets Policy
Perhaps the most explosive claim came as WIN contrasted its healthcare agenda with what it described as the PPP’s “infrastructure-over-substance” approach. Referring to the recent death of a young woman at the Diamond Hospital, reportedly due to inadequate medical equipment and emergency response, WIN accused the government of prioritising appearances over functionality.
“Our hospitals don’t need more paint and glass. They need working equipment, trained staff, and real emergency systems. That’s exactly what our health policy is built on,” the statement read.
WIN said its plan commits to modernising clinics and hospitals in every region with the latest medical technology and adequate staffing. By contrast, the PPP’s system, the party argued, is plagued by well-built facilities that are hollow on the inside.
Sugar, AGRIVISION, and “Mental Osmosis”
President Ali’s comments about revitalising the sugar sector also came under fire. According to WIN, the PPP has already had over two decades to fix the industry and has consistently fallen short. The party instead pointed to its “Sugar Master Plan,” which promises no further estate closures and a shift toward diversification and modernisation.
The party also accused the President of lifting elements from its AGRIVISION 2030 framework — a comprehensive food security and agricultural expansion plan, suggesting that the PPP has “studied our manifesto more than they’d ever admit.”
“If They Needed Ideas, They Could’ve Asked”
The WIN statement ended on a defiant note, calling the PPP’s platform reactionary and directionless, and dismissing claims of policy plagiarism from government officials as “absurd.”
“When they demanded to see our plans, we said: very soon. They laughed. We delivered. And now they scramble,” the party said. “If they needed ideas, they could’ve simply asked.”
As election day on September 1 draws nearer, the battle of ideas has taken a dramatic turn, with not just policies, but the authorship of those policies now on the line.
