Two Villages, two Presidents, two judges and the quest to legitimise injustice

Nov 21, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The villages of Plantation Ayr No. 40 and Seafield, No. 42 on West Coast of Berbice, have been embroiled in physical and legal conflicts with fellow villagers since November 2014 when President Donald Ramotar, through the MMA/ADA, seized lands belonging to and occupied by our respective registered Co-op Societies.
He gave them to other villagers in the form of fifty-year leases without any reference to the management committee of these Co-op Societies. In addition, the laws of Guyana Chapter 88:01 of our constitution that deals with Co-op Societies have been completely ignored and our constitutional rights have been violated.
We have never been given a hearing as regards our lands. No notice was given to us , neither were we compensated for the lands seized from us, given that we have been in continuous occupation of these lands for in excess of thirty years. We were deceived into believing that payment of our outstanding debts as advertised in the newspapers (SN, March 5, 2014) would have prevented any repossession of our lands. But the then chairman of MMA, Mr Gajraj, communicated to us later, in no uncertain terms that whether we paid or not the lands would be repossessed; that he is not dealing with Co-ops but with state lands; and that no court in Guyana can change what he is doing.
At the time of the seizing of our lands, members of the No. 40 Co-op Society had one combine harvester and five tractors. They were more than capable of effectively cultivating our lands. Further, we had paid up approximately eighty per cent (80%) of our debts unto September17, 2014.
The casualties in this horrible unjust act include a mother of six, with five at school, between nursery and secondary and one just starting teachers’ training college. She had an allotment of twenty four acres of lands in the Co-op, the MMA took away twelve acres of her allotment.
She pleaded with the General Manager of MMA, the Chairman of MMA and even with President Ramotar himself not to take away any of her land because that was all she was depending on, since her husband was working in the interior and was not doing well, but her pleas fell on deaf ears! This mother still has five children at school. Some in the Co-op had all their possession taken away, while others had their holdings drastically reduced.
On the other hand, a family that already had over one hundred acres of state lands was given a further fifteen acres from a Co-op member who had twenty five acres or sixty percent of that member’s holding. It now appears that political forces are at work and strenuous efforts are being made to legitimize this monumental injustice.
With regards to No. 40 Farmer Co-op Society Ltd, we were given a lease No. A10199 for twenty five years in January 17, 1972; under the hand of then, President Arthur Chung, the lease at the time comprised 304.43 acres of land. However, on account of drainage and irrigation works by the MMA/ADA which came into existence in 1977, the rice cultivatable land was reduced to 247acres.
The Co-op worked for several years under the management of one William Hamilton and the guidance of then Regional Co-op Development Officer Ms Burke. Many Villagers gained employment from the Co-op.
However, the Co-op went through many challenges over the years, including perennial flooding. At one time the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) took control of the Co-op lands for a number of years, and when things did not work out well for them they abandon the lands for a few years.
During 1987, Mr Ryan Hamilton, myself and others started making efforts to resuscitate the Co-op Society. We were guided by then Regional Co-op Development Officer, one Mr Reid. After negotiations with the Regional Democratic Council, especially one Mr Alfred and officials of MMA, especially one Mr Shabir Ally, the lands were given back to the Co-op Society and we started receiving billing with effect from January 1, 1988.
It should be mentioned that when we took possession of the lands, the entire land mass was covered with thick vegetation including what we call beezee.
From January 1988 to March 2014, a period of twenty-six years, MMA billed us or otherwise demanded drainage and irrigation charges from us. We paid land rent unto April 22, 1994 (receipt no. 69384) and drainage and irrigation charges unto September17, 2014 (receipt no. 13993).
During these years we suffered tremendously from persistent flooding. This flooding is due in large measure to the fact that lands south of the main irrigation canal and where the Co-op lands are located, drain to the Abary River. Whenever there is heavy rainfall the river is flooded and pushes the water back onto the lands.
In view of this, and after many years the MMA dug a canal parallel to the river in order to relieve the flooding. And even this did not help very much because it was never completed. Only ten per cent of the 247 acres of land was planted for the autumn crop 2017 due to flooding.
In all our losses we were never compensated by the MMA. Instead we were given waver of D&I charges. At other times, we were to receive flood relief in the form of seed paddy or fertilizers. Since much of the time we were losing crops and had difficulty in paying our D&I charges, we resorted to taking out contracts with MMA to clean D&I canals in order to upkeep our lands.
We often maintained the D&I and access dams within our boundary at our own cost when MMA failed to do so.
In the meantime, those of my fellow villagers who are now claiming to be rice farmers were stuck in their professions and other forms of occupations for which I applaud them. They are receiving their well deserved pensions. We the Co-op members were up keeping those lands all these years. Can’t we too receive what rightly belongs to us?
They met clean well cultivated lands, while we met heavy vegetation when we took over. In 26 years we would have paid (directly or indirectly) in excess of $16 million llars in land rent and D&I charges at the average rate of $2,500 per acre per year. Cost for developmental works we would have done over these years is not included here.
Moreover, with the enormous hunger for lands in the MMA area, there would have been no lands to give to any villager had we the Co-op people not been there occupying and maintaining those lands.
With the advent of the New Administration in May of 2015, and with the full knowledge of this monstrous injustice and clear unconstitutional imposition on our small community; plus the unambiguous contradiction of treating with similar situations in different communities current president Mr David Granger through his agency, the MMA and the Attorney General chambers embarked on correcting this travesty by revoking those leases issued in 2014.
A plethora of legal challenges and counter challenges ensued, inclusive of injunctions and counter injunctions; claims of contempt and counter claims; police interventions based on claims of threats and counter claims, in addition to actual physical encounters amongst Villagers.
Ultimately, a constitutional motion brought by a few villagers against the MMA and Attorney General on April 26, 2017 before the Hon. Chief Justice Madame Roxanne George and a decision was handed down on August 8, 2017.
Since then, strident calls have been made for the Hon Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards to hand down her ruling on a similar constitutional motion with regard to lands at Seafield.
Patrick Hamilton

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