National Assembly must be consulted on land offer – former AG

President’s land gift

… says offering foreigners land without due process is Executive arrogance

President David Granger’s proclamation that Guyana could offer land to hurricane hit victims in the Caribbean has not gone down well with former Attorney General Anil Nandlall.

According to Nandlall, the President cannot assume the responsibility of offering Guyana’s land to foreigners without due process. This process, Nandlall reminded in a statement on the matter, is consultation with the people’s representatives.
“The President cannot arrogate unto himself the power and authority to offer Guyana’s land mass to foreigners without a word of consultation with or approval of the real owners of these lands – the citizens of Guyana. This issue was discussed with no Guyanese whatsoever.”
It noted also “it was neither raised in nor debated by the Parliament of Guyana. (Neither) the Opposition Leader nor anyone else was informed or consulted in any manner whatsoever. Are we so unimportant in the President’s mind? From whence has President Granger derived the authority to offer our patrimony and our sovereign territory to foreigners?”

Nandlall acknowledged that persons affected by the hurricane should be assisted by the Government and pointed out that it was the People’s Progressive Party that had called on the Government to render assistance. But pointing to the thousands of Guyanese still awaiting land, Nandlall affirmed that the President owed the Guyanese people their input in the decision.
“Significantly, this President has personally revoked over 50 fifty-year-old leases of our rice farmers in Region Five and taken away from them, rice lands from which they earn their livelihood; actions that our constitutional court has declared to be unconstitutional and unlawful.”
This is a reference to the ruling against the Government in the matter of leases which were revoked by the President last year.
The applicants sought justice in the courts and last month, Chief Justice Roxane George, SC, ruled against the President’s revocation of rice farmers land leases. Deeming it unconstitutional, she also ruled that the farmers are entitled to compensation from the State, amounting to the sum of $300,000.
“Against this factual backdrop, how can this President, who has not held a press conference locally for nearly one year in Guyana, hold a press conference in New York and offer our most important national asset to foreigners without even offering us the courtesy of a consultation.”
President Granger, speaking to members of the local media on the side-lines of a United Nations summit in New York, made the proposal to give the victims of Hurricanes Irma and Maria land in Guyana. According to Granger, this form of humanitarian contribution could be pursued as Guyana has the most land mass in the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
“We are the largest Caribbean Community state and we have to consider our land space as being the hinterland of the Caribbean. We have to sit down and speak to other Caricom states to see how this gift could be utilised to give the Caribbean people a better life in the wake of these disasters,” he had related.
With Category Five winds and rain, Hurricane Irma was one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded over the Atlantic Ocean. It has completely devastated Barbuda and affected jurisdictions such as St Maarten, St Barts, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, and the British Virgin Islands.