…the Amerindian past
They say the rich keeps getting richer, while the poor will inherit the earth in the hereafter. What they didn’t say was in the meantime, while they’re still around on planet earth, the poor will keep getting dumped on. In Guyana, while the various ethnic groups on the coastland will always be arguing as to who’s poorer (NEVER who’s richer!) they have to concede that on that particular metric – the Indigenous peoples have them beat hands down.
They were spared from the genocide that wiped out their cohorts in the Caribbean Islands because the Amerindians retreated into the hinterlands and remained cut off from the rest of the country. So while the coast “developed” to give Guyana the dubious distinction of being the country in the Western Hemisphere that’s just above Haiti by every measure, used to measure development and human welfare, the Indigenous Peoples are waaaay below Haiti by those same measures.
At the Independence conference of 1965, the British inserted in the agreement with the PNC/UF government that Amerindian land rights be given effect through demarcation and titling of their “traditional lands”. While the PNC agreed and in 1976 amended the Amerindian Act of 1951, not even half of the land had been demarcated by 1991. Post 1992 the PPP sped up the process after they amended the 1976 Act in 2006. But the titling is still incomplete.
What the whole exercise proved, however, is that land – which some are now muttering is “too much” for Amerindians – without funding and implementation, changes nothing. The PPP tried to factor this in their LCDS but conditions in the Indigenous People’s communities are still dire and they are still the poorest of the poor in Guyana. And will become more so since the APNU/AFC government has pulled the plug on the LCDS.
And that’s why it was so disheartening to hear about the government now deciding to transfer the contents of the Walter Roth Anthropological Museum to make way for additional “presidential office space”. Have we developed the arrogance the Europeans had to “discover” Guyana by assuming the people living here aren’t humans? So, in addition to begrudging them their land, we are now going to move their museum without even consulting them?
When a memorial was going to be built to HONOUR the folks involved 1823 rebellion there was a great protest – which is still extant – as to the lack of “consultation”, which this government supports. But yet it’s OK for them to destroy the precious birthright of the Indigenous Peoples through a unilateral proclamation?
How much more must these most “poor and powerless” Guyanese be dumped on?
…on the rule of law
All that stands between civilisation and the jungle is the “rule of law” which basically boils down into “every man – from King to commoner – must be treated equally before the law”. There can’t be one law for a transgression by a “big one” and another one on the same transgression made by a “small fish”. And we come now to the release of confidential banking records of the former Office of the Presidency PS, Omar Sharief.
Now the rule of law says confidential information obtained by those in charge of upholding the law – such as SOCU – has to remain confidential until the accused is placed on trial. To let out such info into the public realm is to conduct the trial of a person – who is only under SUSPICION – right now by the press. Worse when the info is directly leaked to the press.
This development is a fatal indictment of SOCU. The leak must be investigated and the leaker punished.
…on Ramayya
The REO of Region 6, Ramayya, has had a chequered career in politics. But your Eyewitness wouldn’t wish what happened to him on his worst enemy. Nominated by the AFC, he didn’t expect PPP support. But to be abandoned by the AFC and APNU? Jeez…that’s cold!
So “cornered from three sides”, he was forced to exit from the fourth.
