Granger blasts President’s claims on Amerindian development

Sep 06, 2013 News

– dismayed at “total ignorance and lack of objectivity”

Leader of the People’s National Congress (PNC), David Granger, on Wednesday slammed President Donald Ramotar’s recent utterances on Amerindian development as wildly uninformed and dangerous.

PNC Leader David Granger

Ramotar during the launch of Amerindian Heritage Month had declared that “only under the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration did Amerindians experience development.” He claimed, also, that education and health services “disappeared or, at best, stagnated after 1964.”
According to Granger, the President further claimed that Amerindian development only resumed “in 1992, with the return of democracy to Guyana and the PPP/C Party to the administration.”
Granger yesterday, during an emergency press engagement to respond to the Ramotar assertions, told media operatives that when he learnt of the president’s allegations against the then PNC administration, he was “dismayed at the President’s total ignorance and lack of objectivity.”
According to Granger, the improvement in public services to the indigenous communities and the progress made in hinterland development are a matter of incontrovertible historical record.
He said that the party wanted to remind the ruling administration that the desire to reclaim their ancestral lands has always been the chief desire of all of the indigenous nations.
Granger insisted that nothing was done in this regard by the 1957 to 1964 PPP administration. He said that it was the PNC that established the ‘Amerindian Lands Commission’ in September 1967, under the chairmanship of Mr. P A Forte.
This Commission, he said, began the task of demarcating and facilitating Indigenous land rights, “a process which the PPP is still to complete.”
According to Granger, the PNC had also appointed Philip Duncan, a member of the Wapichan nation, first, as Parliamentary Secretary and, later as Minister, for Amerindian Affairs.
He said too that it was the PNC that initiated the ‘Toshaos’ Conference in February 1969 and allowed for four days of consultation in Georgetown.
“That Conference provided 170 indigenous leaders with their first and best opportunity until then to discuss the problems affecting their widely-dispersed communities with the central government…It was the first Government effort aimed at formulating a far-reaching programme for indigenous peoples’ development which was subsequently put into effect.”
Granger in defending the PNC government said that it was that administration that initiated a progressive education policy for the indigenous people which differed from that of the previous PPP administration.

President Donald Ramotar

He said that this initiative was based on the idea of “taking secondary education to the indigenous people, rather than forcing them to leave their families and communities to study on the coastland.”
Granger pointed out that the PNC began by constructing secondary schools at St Ignatius in the Rupununi and Hosororo in the Barima-Waini Regions.
The Opposition Leader was adamant that it was the PNC administration that expanded primary education by building schools in the Aranaputa Valley and Monkey Mountain, partly through self-help. He said that 11 new government-aided, all-age schools were built at Konashen, Maruranau, St Ignatius, Sand Creek, Toka and Yakarinta in the Rupununi; Kamarang in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni Region; Baramita, Matthew’s Ridge, Port Kaituma, Kwebanna, and Waramuri in the Barima-Waini and Orealla in the East Berbice-Corentyne Regions.
According to Granger, there were 92 primary schools in indigenous communities by 1968, a great improvement from what the PPP bequeathed in 1964.
He said that the hinterland scholarships policy was also expanded.
“Five-year scholarships – which funded tuition, allowances to buy books and clothing and return passages to their homes during the Christmas and August holidays – were provided for selected students.”
Granger said too that a hostel was constructed by the PNC administration on Princes Street and, “most spectacularly, the Umana Yana was erected on High Street, Georgetown.”
The PNC, he said, cannot be truthfully accused of neglect, “it rejects the claim that the development of hinterland and indigenous peoples stagnated between 1964 and 1992 as malicious.”

4 thoughts on “Granger blasts President’s claims on Amerindian development”

Jomo September 6, 2013 at 9:51 am

Granger you are right on this one. Ramotar must expose the Indian who go into the interior and exploit the Amerindian.

Granger please remind Ramotar the first Amerindian Pilots to trained and fly in Guyana, the Medics, Granger you are too soft on Ramotar, you are loaded with the history of the First people of Guyana. In the first place you should call on them who were in the Army with you to defend your argument.
besmart September 6, 2013 at 2:28 pm

Finally someone is honestly fighting for the rights of this nation..Bless you Mr Granger” and do not let this Government bully the Guyanese people.anymore…..enough is enough…These dictators must go.
Kaieteur_Canada September 6, 2013 at 6:07 pm

Most times this President has no clue what he is doing or saying – does what he is told to do and says what he is told to say by that demon Bar-RattleSnake in his head.
Carl_Gy September 12, 2013 at 8:32 am

Good fight by Granger but he has ignored so many PPPC lies that this response just seems like a fleeting blast of energy before he returns to the land of the living dead. Enjoy this one folks, he’s done for the rest of the year. Too bad, because we do need to believe that he’s taking the fight for change to the PPPC and that’s hardly happening right now