Hinterland development has been hindered by PPPC’s hubris

Sep 15, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration, despite its boastfulness and bluster during the current ‘Amerindian Heritage Month,’ has actually hampered the long-term development of the hinterland and hindered the happiness of the indigenous people living there.
The PPPC’s series of short-term, hasty, ‘ad hoc’ remedies to emergency situations and the administration’s preoccupation with showmanship, rather than strategic planning are delusional. The results, after two decades, have been the underdevelopment of physical infrastructure, unsettled Amerindian land issues, an unsafe environment and widespread uneasiness among residents in the hinterland.
The sight of scores of Amerindian protestors in front of the National Assembly and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs on 7th-9th August tells its own story. The protestors had to travel at great expense from the distant Barima-Waini, Cuyuni-Mazaruni and Rupununi Regions. The protest – timed to coincide with the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in August – called attention to unsettled land issues, mainly in those three regions. These included titling and the conflicts with miners who occupy these lands.
The unworthy response of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs was to marshal representatives of the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC), The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana (TAAMOG) and the National Amerindian Development Foundation (NADF) to dismiss the mass protest as “nothing more than an advocacy group trying to boost [its] significance.”
The Ministry of Human Services is still to start a serious enforcement campaign to bring the scourge of trafficking in persons in the hinterland under control. The administration ignored this crime for several years. This changed this year when the Guyana Women Miners’ Organisation started to rescue girls who had been trafficked and APNU piloted a resolution in the National Assembly demanding a Commission of Inquiry. It is a notorious fact that girls have been trafficked to brothels near the mining camps and timber grants for sexual exploitation.
The Ministry of Education seems to have been shocked by the revelation that failure rates at the annual National Grade Six Assessment examinations are astronomically high in the hinterland. The majority of children fail all four subjects. Dropout rates for boys and girls in primary and secondary schools in hinterland areas double the rates for the coastland.
The Ministry of Education, however, has been slow to respond to the crisis. In the recent past, it blamed the hinterland children for their own poor performance on account of their “emotional problems, early adult responsibilities, learning disabilities and parenthood.” There seems to be no plan to bring hinterland education closer to the standards expected on the coastland.
The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Home Affairs are not the appropriate institutions to conduct ad hoc training courses for children and youths. These misguided ministries, instead of grappling with the serious problem of student underperformance, have been experimenting with unsubstantial, multi-million-dollar, training courses. The latest being the $200M Youth Apprenticeship and Entrepreneur Programme (YAEP) for hinterland youths to be trained in culture, education, governance, health and sports, instead of educational and vocational skills.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, on the basis of remarks made at the recent economic forum at the Guyana International Conference Centre, seems to be deeply delusional. It feels that, despite the rising rate of serious crime, the security and public security situation in the country was ‘normal.’ The absence of “wars, riots, and bombings” was cited as proof.
Crime, on the contrary, is rampant in the hinterland. Banditry, contraband smuggling, robbery under arms, narcotics-trafficking and gun-running are, indeed, prevalent. Bandits easily exploit the Guyana Police Force’s lack of resources and inability to effectively patrol the hinterland in order to commit violent crimes. The Ministry has never promulgated a credible border and hinterland security plan.
The Ministry of Health, alas, is still to investigate the deadly outbreak of gastro-enteritis in the Barima-Waini Region and give residents the assurance that there will not be a recurrence when the December-January rains come. This year’s outbreak caused the deaths of ten children and affected over 500 others in the first quarter of 2013.In the face of the resurgence of vector-borne diseases, the Ministry, apart from the passive response of distributing hundreds of mosquito nets in communities affected by the disease, is still to launch a serious anti-malaria campaign.
The Ministry of Public Works has been unable to make hinterland aerodromes and rivers safer, roads more accessible all-year-round and bridges sturdier. There have been a number of aeroplane accidents, fatal road and river accidents largely because of the administration’s reluctance to invest in building proper roads and ensure stricter enforcement. Official attempts to blame the condition of roadways – such as Kwakwani-Ituni and Linden road corridors – on “unusual weather patterns” are nonsensical.
The hinterland is the largest and, potentially, the richest area of this country with its rich agricultural, human, mineral, timber and tourism resources. The People’s Progressive Party Civic administration needs to see the hinterland in a holistic way, rather than a few “vote farms” to be cultivated for the next electoral harvest.
The PPPC needs to radically change its hinterland development policy, if at all it has one. It needs to create a secure environment for Amerindian and other residents, visitors and investors; it needs to improve the standard of education and adopt genuine technical and vocational training for youths; it needs to introduce a new policy for the rehabilitation and construction of safe bridges, roads and other physical infrastructure. These cannot be achieved by ignoring the legitimate demands of the residents themselves.

 

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