The APA does not speak for Indigenous people of Guyana (Part 1)

Dear Editor,
I refer to Stabroek News’ article featuring APA information of 22nd May 2022 (For 21 months, Amerindian Peoples Association has been unable to meet Minister Sukhai). Let me make it pellucid that the APA does not speak, nor represent, all, or even the majority of Indigenous people of Guyana.
The APA executives are in the habit of parading all over the world and making misleading statements as if they are the voice of all Indigenous people of Guyana. They do this to gain popularity and access funds to service their self-interest and political agenda.
Many Guyanese, including myself, were under the impression that the APA was dissolved, as it had been silent in the period 2015 to 2020, during the APNU/AFC Government’s term in office.
It is no secret that the APA is a political front aligned to the previous APNU/AFC Administration. For the five years 2015 to 2020, the APA was mum on all Indigenous people’s issues. To put it mildly, the APA has awakened from its slumber.
It is most evident that when the present Government – PPP/C – came into office in 2020, there apparently was a resurrection of the APA, which has now come off its 5-year hiatus of ‘advocating’ for Indigenous people’s issues. Let it be known that executive, high-ranking members of the APA were on the previous Government’s party list of candidates for the 2015 General Elections; executive members of the APA were placed in executive posts under the APNU/AFC Government; and executive members, including the author or contributor to the May 22nd article, were singled out for a prestigious honorary doctorate. For those who wish to see the facts, they facts are all but transparent.
The APA is raising revision of the Amerindian Act. Firstly, its members were against the ACT of 2006; they never wanted to be regulated, the APA was of the belief that all Guyana belongs to them, and that is why they want Traditional and Customary Rights to be part of Land Titling and almost anything nationally. Why, during the last Government’s term if office, when that Government had the majority in Parliament, was the revision of the very Amerindian Act not done? And more tellingly, why, after 5 long years of the previous Government, did the APA never once raise an issue about this? One of its very own was the Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs. Leading members of the APA served as adviser to the then Minister.
The APA said not a word about the revision of the Amerindian Act during 2015 to 2020. The APA believes Guyanese are forgetful, and their actions and duplicity can be somehow swept under the carpet, or go unnoticed.
For too long, the APA has been misusing Indigenous peoples’ rights as a weapon against the PPP Government, both when the PPP was in office pre-2015 and now that they have jumped on the bandwagon again. The current Minister is very well aware of this fact. The APA’s intention is to hold the Government to ransom. It is all about political posturing under the guise of advocacy.

CONSULTATION, FPIC AND VIOLATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND LCDS 2030, LAND TITLING
The LCDS was first launched in 2009; the world, all Guyanese, and I am sure the APA, know that. To guide the process, a Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee (MSSC) was created. All Indigenous groups were invited to be part of it, and have a representative and an alternate. Representation and alternate and attendance were done by all the other Indigenous groups (The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana -TAAMOG, Guyanese Organization of Indigenous Peoples (GOP) and National Amerindian Development Foundation (NADF). However, by choice, the APA refused to send nomination or representative to the MSSC under the false pretence that no terms of reference for the MSSC was shared with them. They knew very well to collect the benefits that came along with the previous LCDS under the partnership with Norway.
The APA has been misleading Indigenous villages, and thus preventing them from acquiring national benefits and participating in programmes, but unsurprisingly, the APA has not once turned down grant resources from Norway, and, over the past decade, has received millions of dollars of grant money for the very work that it is stymieing.

COVID-19
Here is a case in point: Ms. Laura George pointed out in her article of May 22nd that certain APA villages didn’t take the COVID VACCINE BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT CONSULTED or PROPERLY INFORMED. And as a result of this, they were shut out of meetings, etc. because no vaccine card meant their being unable to travel and access Government facilities.
Can it get more ridiculous than this, Ms. George? The world was reeling from COVID 19. Millions of people died, thousands of Guyanese were infected, hundreds of Guyanese died. The vaccine was a means of countering COVID; what more consultation or information did you need on this? Vaccine was done at the national level and scale, and no international travel was allowed if no vaccine were taken. The reality is that the APA was misleading communities to their disadvantage. They failed to say that, even without the vaccine, once you submitted your negative COVID test result, you could have gained access to any Government facilities.
Thus, if you can make trouble with a global programme of COVID vaccine under the false pretence of lack of information, what else would you not make problems with? Why didn’t the APA didn’t lead this effort of information dissemination to the villages. Many NGOs and Private Sector groups came on board and assisted the Government to roll out this programme. Thankfully, our numbers have reduced dramatically due to the Government’s national vaccination initiative and other health measures.
If the APA can play politics with one’s health, there is no line in the sand to be drawn where they are concerned. No issue is safeguarded from their politicking.
A look back at the period 2015 to 2020, when the PPP was not in office and the APNU/AFC was in Government, would show the LCDS was mysteriously disbanded and replaced by the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS). Where was the APA’s voice on FPIC and on consultation? The GSDS was drafted, and what came out of it? Not a single programme; instead, it was a money pit instead of a programme of incentives and accelerated benefits. Where was the APA’s voice when this strategy was pushed down on the Guyanese and Indigenous people?
May I ask Ms. George or the APA: has any consultation been done before or after the GSDS was drafted? The answer is a resounding ‘No’. Why didn’t the APA say anything? The APA is hoping that Guyanese are forgetful of this reality.

LAND TITLING
The article quoted said a major land-titling project was launched under the APNU/AFC. Can Ms. George or Ms. Jean La Rose provide some more information on this, as to the date when it was launched? The facts are that no land-titling project was launched under the previous administration.
Please be guided by the fact that, from the proceeds of the LCDS 2009/Norway Partnership, the PPP/C Government started this major land-titling project, and as illustrious as it was put over by the APA. This can be verified with UNDP or the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, and the internet: https://lcds.gov.gy/timeline/amerindian-land-titling/
This clearly shows the APA is trying to promote the former administration by claiming a project initiated by the PPP/C Government. A clear sign that the APA and the APNU/AFC are one and the same, and the APA is using Indigenous peoples as a front for its narrow political agenda. The APA’s intension is to sway Amerindian people to vote for the APNU/AFC and to prevent any programme that will help in the development of Amerindian people to proceed. They cannot bear the thought of Amerindian people seeing development and growth under the current political administration.

Sincerely,
Peter Persaud