… feels Indigenous people were attacked by Minister
As they await a response to meet with President David Granger, Vice Chairman of the National Toshaos Council (NTC), Lenox Shuman, is calling on Government to revise the Terms of Reference (ToR) to better guide the Commission of Inquiry
Chairman of the National Toshao Council, Joel Fredericks, along with Vice Chairman Lenox Shuman make their way into Parliament
(CoI) into lands.
“The sheer dynamics and complexities surrounding Indigenous lands issues spanning nine plus separate nations need a different commission with a different skillset and different expertise…it is further important to point out that the criterion for selection of the Commissioners needs to be understood, the ToRs must be better defined and the rules of operation needs more work to better guide the process,” Shuman said on Friday.
He added that the Council has already written the President requesting a meeting and are awaiting his response. However, they are still continuing with their advocacy to have the CoI scrapped, noting it does not address the issues they are concerned about.
The CoI was established in March by President Granger, to examine and make recommendations to resolve all issues and uncertainties surrounding the claims of Amerindian land titling, the individual, joint or communal ownership of lands acquired by freed Africans and any matters relating to land titling in Guyana.
However, since its establishment, the NTC has condemned the CoI noting that Amerindian land issues are much more complex and as such called on the Administration to have it revoked. The pleas of the Indigenous peoples representatives have fallen on deaf ears with the Indigenous Peoples Affairs Minister, Sydney Allicock, accusing its leadership of being politically aligned with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
“It is sad that the Minister would think that we are politically aligned and I have said that the NTC will never be politically affiliated to any Party… the fact that the opposition arguments matches the NTC proves that the Opposition is aligned with the NTC and not the other way round… we are an impartial group addressing the concerns of the Indigenous people,” Shuman explained.
Opposition Member of Parliament and former Amerindian Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai tabled a motion at the May 8 sitting of the National Assembly calling for the revocation of the CoI. However, Shuman said that it is very unfortunate that Minister Allicock, during his defence of the CoI, aligned his advocacy with the workings of Judas having full view and knowledge of his character.
“… an attack on the President of Guyana must be viewed as an attack on the nation, and likewise, an attack on the democratically elected leadership of the Indigenous peoples must be viewed as an attack on all of Guyana’s Indigenous peoples,” he said.
Sukhai’s motion stated that the Terms of Reference of the CoI were published in the Official Gazette on March 11, 2017, the day after six of the seven members of the Commission of Inquiry were sworn in. It added that in so doing the Government denied the NTC, Amerindian communities and Amerindian non-governmental organisations, of the right to be informed and consulted as to the rationale for, and the objectives of, the Commission and therefore called for its immediate revocation.
Shuman explained that he along with Chairman of the NTC, Joel Fredericks, attended the May 8 sitting of the National Assembly to view how both the Government and Opposition would handle the debate of Sukhai’s motion. “We were there to observe the debate in a non-political way and both sides of the House missed the mark and the issues still remain the same,” he added.
He stated that the issues ought to be addressed separately since Amerindian land titling and ancestral lands are much more complex than the issue of addressing lands acquired by freed Africans.
He noted that prior to the establishment of the CoI, the NTC was not consulted and as such they feel that their rights, as prescribed in Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN-DRIP) have been violated.
Article 19 of the of the UN-DRIP reads: “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.”
The Commission is being chaired by Reverend George Chuck-A-Sang and includes David James, Carol Khan-James, Professor Rudolph James, Lennox Caleb, Paulette Henry and Belinda Persaud.
The final report of the Commission is expected to be handed over to the President, on or before November 1, unless and extension is granted.
Other organisations, including the Guyanese Organisation of Indigenous Peoples, The Amerindian Action Movement, South Central Peoples Development Association, and the National Amerindian Development Foundation, have all protested the merging of the two issues under one blanket CoI.
Efforts to contact Minister Allicock proved futile. (Lakhram Bhagirat)
