Our first citizens

Sep 02, 2024 Editorial

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – September is here again, it is the month when as a country we place the spotlight on our Indigenous brothers and sisters in what is now called ‘Amerindian Heritage Month.’
We commence this month of festivities just after the National Toshaos Council Conference was held. The conference again exposed the naked political opportunism of the ruling PPP/C Government which has been notorious for using Amerindians as political props. As we have said here before the Indigenous communities, despite residing in the resource-rich hinterland, face deep-seated challenges that have gone unaddressed for far too long. While the new Secretariat for the Council and the coming together of Indigenous leaders are steps in the right direction, it is high time to revamp these conferences into platforms that can bring resolution to the systemic problems plaguing Indigenous communities. It is a painful irony that Indigenous communities living amidst the natural wealth of Guyana’s hinterland bear the brunt of the country’s highest and most extreme rates of poverty.
Hinterland resources are being exploited without adequate rewards flowing to Indigenous communities. Mining activities have ravaged the environment, leaving scars that are not only visible on the land but also in the communities. Indigenous peoples face the harsh consequences of soil degradation, deforestation, and polluted water sources, which severely impact their way of life. Mining, despite its promise of economic advancement, has unleashed a slew of social problems upon these communities. The surge in alcohol abuse, prostitution, and sexual abuse has eroded social relations, while the mass migration of young people to the gold fields due to a lack of economic opportunities threatens the continuity of these communities. Indigenous communities witness the plunder of their forests by timber companies, who often depart without offering adequate compensation or sustainable alternatives. The more resources are extracted, the poorer the Indigenous communities.
No doubt, during this month, there will be a series of official functions, and political figures jostling each other for space, and to make their usual speeches. The President is going to have something to say with one of his now well-orchestrated performances while the Leader of the Opposition is sure going to be concerned at the thought of being left behind, and have his own version of rich words to share.
The content of their speeches will have some flavour about how much the Amerindian Guyanese people are important in the traditions of this country, how much they have contributed and grown, and how much of a vital role they have to play as Guyana breaks new ground with its discovery of oil. We wish it were so, for Guyana would be aided in its national development visions, and the Amerindian community, as a whole, would be given genuine opportunity to lift itself up. Consultation with reality, however, paints an ugly picture of a people poorly thought of, seen in a certain way, and dealt with in a most clever manner. For behind the surface sheen, and smooth talk of leaders, many Amerindian communities still live in a state plagued by heavy poverty, limited economic openings for upward mobility, and with the twin evils of alcoholism and sexual abuse rampant. Politicians are pleased to play at being fools while this is the overall grim condition of Amerindians from government to government.
To make matters worse, Amerindian communities have found themselves to be battlegrounds for the two dominant political forces, as both try to jockey for their own handpicked people to be in place in democratic organs, where they wield unchallengeable power. The result is that their councils have been hijacked, and their leaders pulled this way and that, and with only a few benefiting. The National Toshaos Council has been wracked with claim and counterclaim by the warring political parties in Guyana, with our First Citizens reduced to helpless pawns caught in the crossfire. Even leaders who speak out for their people on crucial issues are branded as belonging to the rival political force. Perhaps, it is time that scrupulous and genuine leaders in the Amerindian communities step forward, and consider organizing so that they could aspire to that state where they are positioned to represent their people in a better way.

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