Progress of Amerindian contemporaneous with the democratic return to office of the PPP

Mar 12, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
No decent, honest Guyanese who has followed profoundly the history of our Guyana will deny that, more than any Government of the pre and the post Independence period of our country’s history, the PPP/C Government which a significant majority of the Guyanese electorate, including Amerindians, restored to power through the democratic process in October 1992, has committed extensive resources and has persevered diligently to bring about positive changes and improvement in the lives of our Amerindian brothers and sisters.
We have worked with our Indigenous people to bring them improved social services and physical infrastructure and, in the process, creating for them wider choices than were available to them before the return of the PPP/C to the seat of Government. Many are now teachers, head teachers, education officers, doctors, medex, dentex, nurses, health workers, agriculture officers, engineers, police and army officers, ministers of Government etc.
We have, through a continual consultative process, through legislation and by providing resources restored and guaranteed their rights, including their rights to the land they occupy.
We moved to demarcate the then titled communities even as we addressed requests from other communities for the granting of land titles and from those already titled for additional lands.
Under the Peoples National Congress Government, the Minister could “add, delete and vary” the boundary of an Amerindian community’s lands. Furthermore, a community could not “dispose or attempt to dispose of any interest, right or title in community lands without the Minister’s approval”.
Our revised Constitution of 2003 protects Amerindian Lands. The titles to these lands are granted under the State Lands Act which makes such titles “absolute and forever”. The titles are vested in the elected Amerindian Village Councils and the settlements and the boundaries are clearly defined and demarcated.
Presently we have increased the number of such titled villages to 97 with 74 of them having their lands fully demarcated. It should be noted also that 17 of the remaining 23 Villages have already applied to have their lands demarcated. Would somebody tell me about this land issue that we have to resolve?
Today, our approximately 70,000 Amerindian residents represent over 9% of our country’s population and own a land mass that has risen from 6% in 1991 to 13.9% today. While the indigenous people of many countries are being dispossessed of their lands, the PPP/C has been giving them what is theirs. While in some countries indigenous people have rights of use of the land only, in Guyana, they own the land. And these developments have taken place through a process of consultation with the residents of each of the villages concerned to ensure that the villagers understand the process and procedures to be followed, to address in a timely manner concerns arising out of these consultations and to ensure goodwill on the part of the Government.
The PPP/C Government is seriously and earnestly addressing; albeit within the confines of available resources and the need to spread these resources in order to satisfy other societal needs and the issue of the Amerindian rights. And we have not restricted our focus to the issue of land only. What about the rights of our Amerindian people to quality education; to primary health care and education; to improved transportation and communication; to potable water; to electricity; to improved livelihoods?
How serious, how genuine, how fair, how truthful are those who create a hullabaloo and call for “hold on LCDS, REDD+ projects until resolution the land issue”. The PPP/Civic Government has been continuously addressing  not only the Amerindian land issue but more than many, this Government has been a defender and an active supporter of the Amerindian people, their land and their right to enjoy increased access to the goods and services which those of us in the urban areas enjoy.
During the July 2009 National Toshaos’ Conference, His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo handed over land titles to 11 villages to the elected Toshaos of those villages. During 2009 also, the lands of the Amerindian villages of Isseneru, Massara and Parikwarunau were demarcated at a cost of approximately $44.5 million. This is quite apart from financial resources expended on the provision of schools, books, uniforms, hospitals, health posts; the provision of transportation facilities such as boats/outboard engines, ATVs for some villages; farm support in the form of tractors, farm tools, extension services to others; solar lighting systems to many households, the provision of hinterland and national scholarships to our Amerindian students who excel at the level of the SSEE and the CSEC Examination, and who perform creditably at Tertiary Institutions, the construction of a Dormitory at Liliendaal on the East Coast of Demerara to accommodate such students under one roof and with proper supervision; providing support to patients from the Hinterland during their period of recuperation in the form of accommodation, meals and transportation to return to their villages etc.; the training of teachers, health workers, nurses etc.
I ask of those mischievous distorters and strangers to the truth who are still able to misguide a few: must we “hold on LCDS, REDD+ Projects “which will be a source of funding to continue and to accelerate many of the development projects and activities I have adumbrated above, until a resolution of what is essentially an issue for you with your own political Agenda? By what authority and under what instrument have you been anointed/appointed / delegated to represent the interest of the Amerindian people?
Does the 2006 Amerindian Act which our Government successfully tabled in the National Assembly following our country-wide consultation with the full involvement and support of the Amerindian people and their elected leaders not provide under Section 13(a) for the elected Village Council to represent the Village?
Does Section 41 of the Act not allow the elected National Toshaos’ Council to play an integral role in the development of Amerindian villages and by extension, the welfare of its residents? Why do you seek to usurp unto yourselves a right that is not yours? Why do you seek to mislead a few Amerindians? What is your motive?
Nobody should have any doubts that Amerindians have always practiced low carbon development; so that our Government’s drive to sell forests carbon services to the rest of the World must be viewed, en parte, as a way of repaying our indigenous people for preserving the forests for us. And this is where the Amerindians are being consulted and will decide whether they want to offer their lands or not and so continue to do what they have been doing throughout the centuries – protecting and maintaining the forests. Whether they become part of the strategy or not, our Amerindians will benefit from income earned from it. The Amerindian people understand all of this. Also, the Guyana Forest Commission has provided guidance. Village councils are required to develop, in consultation with the residents of the villages, rules for the management and use of their land. Thus, while our Indigenous people utilize the land primarily for farming, hunting, fishing, constructing their homes etc.; many villages are involved in sustainable logging that benefit from the advice of the Guyana Forests Commission and that take into account Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy and our Indigenous people’s close affinity to the forests. Titled Amerindian villages own the forests within their titled villages. The Environmental Protection Agency also assists the villages to comply with the national laws and standards for use of the forests.
Some would wish to see the strategy fail. That’s their only interest; not the interest of the Amerindian people. I say to them: this strategy is about Guyana’s future and our Amerindian brothers and sisters understand this. Please, let not the charlatans who are mere pretenders to leadership of the Amerindian people seek to belittle them.
Awareness activities will continue and will continue to target the Village councils, the villagers, the National Toshaos Council and you the detractors, few though you be. These would provide opportunities to seek further clarifications, to raise concerns, to make further recommendations.
Our President continues to be the main driver behind the strategy and continues to receive international acclaim for his vision. The funds which Guyana stands to receive consequent on its MOU with Norway will help inter alia, to accelerate the rate and extent of the development of our Indigenous people. Guyana needs the support of all Guyanese for all will benefit. The recent get together of a few discarded, wannabe and perhaps, innocently misguided Amerindian “Leaders” must be seen for what it is – a case of the blind leading the blind.
To those who continue their attempt at misleading our Amerindian people I say that you have been taking this pathway for some while; but for me this present attempt to mislead some Amerindians is “the unkindest cut of them all”. Please put Guyana first.
Norman Whittaker M. P.

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