Amerindian development began long before 1992

Sep 08, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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The Government Information Agency (GINA) reported that President Donald Ramotar, while addressing the opening ceremony for ‘Amerindian Heritage Month’ on Sunday 1st September, claimed that “only under the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration did Amerindians experience development.” He claimed, also, that education and health services “disappeared or, at best, stagnated after 1964.” He claimed, further, that Amerindian development only resumed “in 1992, with the return of democracy to Guyana and the PPPC Party to the administration.” These claims were all wildly uninformed.
The President, in making these claims at a major, national event, attempted to disparage the achievements of the previous People’s National Congress administration. His attempt to do so, however, revealed his total ignorance of what happened in the period 1964 – 1992. The enhancement of the quality of life, the increase in educational and economic opportunities, the empowerment of traditional leaders and councils, the improvement in public services to the indigenous communities and the progress made in hinterland development are a matter of incontrovertible historical record.
The most fundamental issue and the chief desire of all of the indigenous nations has always been their desire to reclaim their ancestral lands. The PPP administration did nothing in this regard during its 1957-64 administration. The ‘Amerindian Lands Commission’ was established only in September 1967 under the chairmanship of Mr P A Forte. The Commission began the task of demarcating and facilitating Indigenous land rights, a process which the PPP is still to complete after 21 years.
The central government recognized the importance of indigenous issues. The ‘Toshaos’ Conference’ – a four-day, 28th February-3rd March 1969, consultation held in Georgetown, facilitated communication between indigenous communities and the central government. That Conference provided 170 indigenous leaders with their first and best opportunity until then to discuss the problems affecting their widely-dispersed villages at the highest level. It was the first government effort aimed at formulating a far-reaching programme for indigenous peoples’ development which was subsequently put into effect. The appointment of Mr Philip Duncan, a member of the Wapichan nation, first, as parliamentary secretary and, later as Minister, for Amerindian Affairs, was another step in this direction.
One outcome of the conference was the recognition of the role of traditional, indigenous leaders, their formal appointment as ‘captains,’ their assignment of responsibility for community development and their entitlement to the payment of stipends by the government. These administrative changes facilitated community development and self-help projects, based on the local, grass-roots participation of the residents.
Scores of self-help projects were launched. These included, for example, a communal farm at Aishalton; community centres at Annai and Kurukabaru; a bridge at Sawariwau; wells at Massara and Toka; a medical outpost at Wakapoa; a paddock at Karasabai; windchargers at Marunanau, Sand Creek and Shulinab; a co-operative shop at St Cuthbert’s Mission; schools at Akawini and Mashabo  and water supply systems to Itabac, Massara and Moco-Moco.
Community development was accompanied by a progressive education policy for the indigenous people in a way which differed from that of the previous PPP administration. The idea was to take ‘secondary education to the indigenous people’ rather than forcing them to leave their families and communities to study on the coastland. The construction of residential schools at St Ignatius in the Rupununi and Hosororo in the Barima-Waini Regions gave indigenous children access to secondary education.
Primary education was expanded by building schools in the Aranaputa Valley and Monkey Mountain, partly through self-help. Eleven 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. There were 92 primary schools in indigenous communities by 1968, a great improvement from the scant legacy bequeathed by the PPP in 1964.
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. A hostel was constructed on Princes Street and, most spectacularly, the Umana Yana was erected on High Street, Georgetown.
Health services were enhanced with the building, equipping and staffing of health centres in the Mazaruni, Moruca, Pomeroon, Potaro and Rupununi. The training of midwives and medical rangers was augmented. Immunisation programmes were extended and the incidence of malaria infection was reduced.
Economic production was transformed from the traditional, slash-and-burn, subsistence mode of farming to a modern, market-oriented model of production. This was done training of farmers in new techniques, improving the cultivation of crops and introducing new crops.  Farmers were trained in practical courses at the Hosororo Agricultural Station in the Barima-Waini and at the Guyana School of Agriculture at Mon Repos.
Peanut cultivation was started at Achewib, Aishalton, Awarewanau, Karaudanawa, Marunanau and Shea in the Rupununi; cabbage production flourished at Paruima in the Upper Mazaruni and oil palm was grown at Wauna in the Barima-Waini.
The Guyana Marketing Corporation guaranteed stable prices in the villages and reliable air freight to Georgetown. Indigenous farmers, as a result of this policy, were able to produce and ship 594,712 lbs of cabbage and tomatoes to Georgetown by air in 1971. The next year, large quantities of corn, black-eye peas, peanuts were transported from the hinterland to markets on the coastland.
Transportation and communications were augmented by the construction of ten airfields – at Coomaka; Ekeraku; Enachu; Eteringbang; Kaikan; Kurupung; Paruima; Shea; Velgrad and Waramadong – between 1966 and 1969 alone. Roads were built at Hosororo, Potarinau and elsewhere. A radio communication network was established to link administrative centres with defence and security stations.
The President, in summary, cannot truthfully claim that the development of hinterland and indigenous peoples stagnated between 1964 and 1992. The evidence proves otherwise.

 

 

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