This
government is come to be known as one that sports, eats and travels, while it dissimulates the country’s business from the people it ought to be serving. It is the government which has endeavoured to massively increase taxes in every possible way imaginable while maiming the economy in less than a year of governance.
One would have thought that a coalesced government would have the advantage of richer, wider experience and perspectives. Instead, in less than a month of being installed, the coalition began demonstrating a disturbing penchant for unabashed corruption cobbled with a certain level of impunity from public accountability and transparency. The arrogance meted out to the people of this country seems to have killed the spirit of the hardworking women and men – people who now only wait for this term to pass.
The Amerindians who petitioned the President to have Regional Executive Officer (REO) Carl Parker removed, also seem to have lost faith in the system. More than three months after the petition was submitted, no action has been taken by the President, and Carl Parker continues to violate indigenous rights in Region 9. Yesterday, during his 71st birthday festivities, President Granger was quoted as saying that he feels “a sense of confidence that people are with [him], that people understand where [he wants] to go” and “the type of country [he wants] our children and grandchildren to inherit”. What about the Amerindians of the Rupununi then? What are they to inherit other than a Rupununi which in time would become tarnished by political and racial divisiveness caused by one man, who the President by his inaction and silence, protects? Are they to inherit “shoes that grow” while the President’s residence and Ministry is decorated with 6000 solar panels initially intended for Amerindian homes?
Interestingly, the President was solicited in person by the petitioners but has relegated the responsibility to act, to the Communities Minister, Ronald Bulkan, who in a pompous display of arrogance proceeded to question the legitimacy of the signatures. The question is, if the Amerindian minority cannot have faith in the President, then how are they to contribute to the forging of a better country for their “children and grandchildren”?
What about the people of Tasserene in the Upper Mazaruni who to date have not seen the deliverance of an Absolute Grant, while a Natural Resources Minister continues to own mining blocks on their lands? This is a flagrant violation of the Amerindian Land Titling project document which is legally binding for stakeholders, as well as the provisions made to guarantee indigenous rights under the Norway/Guyana Agreement. Although the matter has been brought before the attention of the President and subject Ministers since February of this year, no response has been issued to stakeholders and beneficiaries.
Perhaps the tactic of this Granger government is to sap the energy from the people as they wait in vain for the resolution of problems which have daily consequences on their lives. However, the President and his government’s disregard for indigenous rights, is being archived by Amerindians, blunder after blunder. So is the indifference from international stakeholders such as the United Nations Development Programme under the leadership of Khadija Musa and the Norwegian delegation jointly responsible for the forest programme in Guyana, both of which were directly informed of these indigenous rights violations.
Unsurprisingly, President Granger benefits from a current of thought which would like us to believe that he has no prior knowledge of, or has no control over the exactions committed by the members of his government – an argument which is unquestionably flawed and inapplicable to these two instances where his intervention was directly requested. Consequently, President Granger remains accountable to the people of the Rupununi and Tasserene, without which he will be reminded incessantly of his inefficiency to guarantee the rights of the people he was installed to serve.
