Titled lands, the title of President

Sep 25, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – President Irfaan Ali has a history of rushing across Guyana to put out fires. In times when citizens have been dealt hard blows, President Ali made room in his schedule and ran with words of comfort to citizens pushed to the brink by circumstances that make them weep. He must show the same energy and face now in the ongoing distresses faced by Guyana’s indigenous citizens in the Chinese Landing area.

Two cousins murdered in gruesome circumstances in the backlands of Cotton Tree, Berbice. President Ali cleared his desk and was there. Police shootings that resulted in death in the Linden Township and President Ali took off for there, could not be stopped. An 11-year-old child died in mysterious circumstances in Tuschen, and Pres Ali was prompt in reaching towards the grieving, those trying to deal with life’s tough blows. Whether it was the horrific Mahdia Dormitory Fire that left Guyana with 20 less citizens, or the tragedy of the MV Barima that has an official toll of 73 lives lost (whichever everyone knows is woefully undercounted), President Ali was never far from the scene, usually putting in an appearance.

We at this paper say that, that is all good. A president on the move, one that seemingly is about being there, when hard trials hit home. He has done the same for embattled ministers of his PPP/C Government. If all that is bandied about relative to the excesses and failures of government ministers, the president would not have time for the rest of his duties. His full-time occupation, with overtime needed, would be to run to the defense of his ministers alleged to be in some default, which he has done. When it has been a life lost under terrible and hazy circumstances, or a minister’s tenure on the line, President Ali has not been short of either interest or energy. There must be something that has to be said for that, regardless of how the issues raised are dealt with in the aftermaths that have left must to be desired.

On the other hand, when the issue involves land and people with some relationship to the PPP/C Government, the president goes in the opposite direction. He speaks from a distance, as though some high oracle. He is all hands off, as though it is not his business, or the business of his government. We do not treat today with thousands of acres of prime mining lands falling into the hands of people close to him. Thousands of acres of land, almost overnight, while ordinary citizens have no choice but to take the push around and the long waiting game that could run into years. Today, our focus zeroes in on the abuse taking place at Chinese Landing. What is happening there is that Guyana’s most vulnerable citizens, its most helpless people, are being pushed to the wall, and slowly but relentlessly deprived of their rights. So, where is the president, the usually active and engaged Irfaan Ali?

A couple of issues have to be put to rest, at this point. Indigenous lands as identified are either sacred lands, or they are not. If they are sacred, they are off-limits to outsiders. Guyana’s institutions, such as the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission cannot comfort itself with narrow technicalities, then take itself out of the dispute now raging between a mining party and the indigenous community at Chinese Landing. The indigenous either have title or they do not. When the court has left areas open, and Guyana’s premier mining authority has washed its hands of the Chinese Landing stalemate, President Ali has a duty to lend the weight and prestige of his office to being about a resolution. At this time, when the impasse at Chinese Landing has taken on a new and aggressive dimension, it is when President Ali is needed to take control and bring some calm to a situation that grows more unsafe for the villagers.

We are not asking the president to make his own law. We are asking that President Ali bring the parties together, and lay out limits about how far each side could go. And always with a mutually satisfactory resolution in mind.

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Editorial, President, President Ali, titled lands

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