Dear Editor,
I heard on my radio recently a report that titles to a stated fraction of our commonly-owned lands had been granted to the leaders of communities formed by our Amerindian brothers and sisters, to be held on behalf of the inhabitants of the said communities. Well done, Guyana! Very well done! And not before time, too!
I do not recall exactly the proportion of our State’s land mass which was reported to have been indigenized; it struck me, demographically thinking, though, that presumably, the rationality of the award to the Amerindians was linked to their numbers as a percentage of the number of land-owning persons in Guyana, by race.
And as the thought of Guyana – that is, the one delineated in Guyanese minds – came to my mind, it occurred to me that the following question might not be amiss: what percentage, if any, of recent national/international urgings to award lands to our indigenous population was made on Guyana by Venezuela, and did any such exhortation increase since President Chavez assumed office?
More importantly, though, it having been decided to make the several regional awards, were any limits, eg, protective trusts, imposed on the grantees? For example, not so very long ago, a donor about to donate a gift to an under-30 year-old, would do so by a trust in which he would reserve to the trustees thereof the power, among other things, to approve or not the donee’s ability to enter into certain arrangements, eg, one alleged to be for the donee’s short-or long-term benefit. A lease of land, or a mortgage of it, where the trust included land, might be an example of such.
Did Government here include any such reservation? For instance, one that the lands awarded might not be alienated, even temporarily, to a “person” of foreign nationality – including a dual (Guyanese) national – without the prior approval of even both Guyana and the relevant contiguous State. Just a thought. However early the gift of maturity may come in the case here, wisdom advises that due nurture and protection be provided in the interim.
It is quite reasonable to believe that your writer is not the sole person holding views like these, and that it would therefore be reasonable to believe that it would be beneficial if Government would inform the population, including the grantees, where could be found, accessible to the average, literate, Guyanese persons the Working Papers, Independent (or Government) Reviews, Bills before parliament and finally the Act(s) by which titles came to be bestowed on the several communities. It would help, too, if any disclosable plans to review after time what has so far been done might also be mentioned.
It may even happen that, by such disclosure, Guyana might persuade some States which include “indigenes” among their population, but which dread future regret or disadvantage, to follow our lead fearlessly. We have led the region, and the world, before. And not always to Jonestown either.
Yours faithfully,
Hilary Lashley-Bobb
