Many good reasons why the PPP will remain the party of and for Amerindians

After disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Toshaos Conference is now back in 2022, and has stirred much excitement among the Amerindian people. Absolutely no doubt, the PPP remains the political party which the majority of Amerindians support. Election after election since 1992, the majority of Amerindian voters sided with the PPP. There can be little doubt that, in the two years since the PPP returned to Government, the Amerindian people are even more solid in the PPP camp. Moreover, in less than two years, President Irfaan Ali has amassed confidence among the Amerindian people, who see him as a President with genuine interest in the welfare of Amerindian people. Amerindians found an ally in Cheddi Jagan. Bharrat Jagdeo continues to be a hero among young and old Amerindians. Now President Ali is assuming rockstar status among the Amerindian people.
The conference was started under the PPP, and has, year after year, gained greater prominence and greater significance. Because this is where the leaders of the Amerindian communities across Guyana gather as a group, it has garnered political attention. The Amerindian leaders and the Amerindian communities in Guyana recognise that, as a group, Amerindian voters play a huge role in determining who governs Guyana. No ethnic group has the vote power to, by itself, assure a political party of victory in any free and fair election. Without the support of the majority of Amerindian people, no political party can win a free and fair election in this country; at least, as of now. The truth is that since Guyana’s first free and fair elections post-independence, in 1992, the majority of Amerindian people have voted PPP.
There are good reasons why the party of choice has been, and continues to be, the PPP for the Amerindian people. Some Amerindian people have, over the years, believed they could form a purely ethnic party and win over the Amerindian votes. The latest person who tried that strategy was Lenox Shuman, who is now the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. He did not win a seat on his own, and the Amerindian people, by a vast majority, chose the PPP and rejected all the other parties that vied for their support. They almost unanimously rejected even the LJP of Lenox Shuman.
As the Toshaos Conference 2022 rolls along this week, there are many reminders why the PPP has become the party of, and for, the Amerindian people. At the opening of the conference, President Ali, dressed in a traditional Chief’s headwear, presented two absolute grants and five certificates of title to villages from Regions 2, 7 and 9. Capoey and Mashabo received absolute grants, while titles were given to Region 2 villages of Mainstay-Whyaka and St. Monica, Region 7 villages of Tassarene and Kangaruma, and the Region 9 village of Yupukari. In 1966, the Independence Declaration included granting Amerindians titles to their land. The law to permit this was not done until ten years later, by the PNC Government in 1976. But for the rest of the PNC time in their brutal dictatorial rule, they ignored and betrayed the promise to Amerindians, and did not grant them titles. In was after 1992, under Cheddi Jagan — a process accelerated under Bharrat Jagdeo — that real, genuine, serious efforts to grant titles to Amerindian lands started. The PPP Government allocated real funding to allow for demarcation and granting of titles. Dozens of communities were demarcated and given titles. This was halted by David Granger’s APNU/AFC Government. Now that the PPP is back in Government, the titling programme is back on track.
While land titling has been one of the many reasons why the PPP secured the confidence of the overwhelming numbers of Amerindian people, it represents only one of many reasons why Amerindians find a comfort zone within the PPP. President Ali, like his predecessor PPP presidents, have shown a keen interest in addressing the welfare of the Amerindian people. When President Ali announced that Toshaos would receive a 50% increase in their stipend, moving the monthly stipend from $30,000 to $45,000, it represented the first time an increase was granted since 2014. It was the PPP under Cheddi Jagan that introduced the stipend. It was Bharrat Jagdeo that increased the stipend several times until it reached $30,000 in 2014. Between 2015 and 2020, the PNC, then under the disguise of Granger’s APNU/AFC, did not add a penny to the stipend. Increases were also announced for the stipends of Deputy Toshaos and Councillors.
No doubt, Aubrey Norton would counter that it is not enough. But where were the PNC leaders when not a cent was added to the stipend for five years?
Amerindians know that the PPP has been their ally and friend, and that PPP presidents have always paid keen interest in their welfare. In just two years, President Ali’s PPP Government has invested more than $50B in Amerindian communities. More than $1.7B in direct economic investments has been made.
During Conference 2022, the PPP announced an investment of US$100M, or Gy$20B, to develop four state-of-the-art diagnostic centres by 2025, to provide better health care for the people in Regions 1,7,8 and 9. With unprecedented numbers of Amerindian professionals, with more of the Indigenous communities accessing education and training, the Amerindian people are being empowered. There are good reasons why they will continue to vote PPP.