Last
week the National Toshaos Council (NTC) conference was graced with the presence of His Excellency President David Granger, who delivered a speech which left many perplexed. Perplexed, because it was unsubstantiated by the absence of visionary and strategic planning for Amerindians. More importantly, it confirmed his troubling penchant for Commissions of Inquiry, military men and bureaucracy in Government, none of which have proven their worth to the people and the advancement of this country, and all of which are exorbitances on the backs of taxpayers.
President Granger proposed that an authority comprised of five individuals, be established to report and act on policies designed for indigenous peoples, as well as to support the NTC. The President’s ambition is a clear insinuation that both the Indigenous Affairs Ministry and the NTC are incompetent in the assumption of their functions. This is despite the coalition equipping itself with two Indigenous Affairs Ministers, and a technical team of at least three ministerial advisors (instead of one), a Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS) and an Acting DPS. It is therefore natural that the people question the logic behind the President’s new prerogative. It also invites corruption, interference in autonomous institutions and political machinations.
Unsurprisingly, Granger minutely avoided the underlying issues affecting Amerindian development, most of which can be acted upon immediately by his Government. The most important remains indigenous land rights for which the Amerindian Land Titling (ALT) Project was specifically designed, in response to the indigenous rights provisions of Jagdeo’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). The President failed to provide answers as to why this administration fired the staff of the ALT which delivered six Absolute Grants in the space of six months of consultative investigation while being unable after thirteen months in office, to produce a single land title.
The President also denied the NTC an explanation as to why the Natural Resources Minister, who is a prime stakeholder to the Amerindian Land Titling Project, is still allowed to mine on Tasserene’s proposed title land, despite the breach of contractual obligations of both the ALT project document and the LCDS Agreement. The said Minister, who was found boisterously applauding the President’s shallow discourse, holds three medium-scale blocks in Tasserene, encumbering on the community’s land titling process. Ironically, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) held an interactive session with the NTC on mining issues during the conference.
The Rupununi petition was also cautiously avoided by the President although he was personally solicited by twelve hundred Amerindians who accused the Region 9 REO, Carl Parker, of fourteen accounts of rights violation including political, sexual and ethic discrimination. Four months later, the people of the Rupununi remain without an answer. This is exceedingly shameful considering that the Indigenous Affairs Minister himself is a Rupununian.
President Granger didn’t even enlighten the audience on a sustainable development plan for Amerindian communities, or on the commitments of his Government to guarantee cultural preservation. Yet, the fragile village economies of Amerindian communities remain dependent on the country’s wider economic context, which is currently in terrible shape as the working and poorer classes suffer the blow of mediocre policy making across sectors.
This Government’s avarice for resources to fortify State institutions via additions of layers of bureaucracy dictated by military style leadership, while enriching partisans of the PNC-dominated APNU who are strategically placed to govern these new outlets, do not compensate for the attacks on the socioeconomic and human rights of Guyanese. Amerindians have seen 6000 solar panels procured under the former administration for their homes, appropriated by the Harmon administration for the refurbishing of the Ministry of the Presidency and the President’s residence.
Shortly after, they witnessed the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology – a centre for archaeological findings, indigenous history and cultural preservation – become the victim of this Administration’s insatiable gluttony and selfishness. All of this without the free, prior and informed consent of Amerindians, to support the comfort of the Ministry of the Presidency, in a Government which to date has demonstrated its immeasurable incompetency in managing the affairs of this country.
If President Granger has nothing to offer but his disturbing obsession with bureaucracy, then one must conclude that he is no visionary, and is therefore the prime reason behind the inaptitude of the Cabinet he heads. The unpardonable practices and corruption of this coalition merely reflect the President’s tolerance for mediocrity in governance, detrimental to the development of Guyana and its First Peoples.
