Not surprisingly, the much-hyped compensation meeting between the government and the Buxton backland farmers degenerated into chaos over Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud’s choice of words. President Bharrat Jagdeo has since consulted with Christian leaders from that village and wisely and publicly agreed that the majority of Buxtonians are in fact law-abiding citizens, which might be just what is needed to take the process forward.
It is a pity that the administration did not think it fit to consult with the church leaders first. It might have been good to have invited these leaders to share the ‘head table’ at the meeting with Mr Persaud; and even better, were they briefed on the compensation plan, they could have articulated it as they are bound to have a better rapport with the farmers. It is also a fact, sad but true, that church leaders are generally more respected than politicians.
The farmers said they were incensed by the President’s statement, which might have been just an unfortunate and sweeping generalisation made at a time when emotions are running high. As evidenced by the protests last week, anger is sometimes a conduit for fear.
Towards the end of 2003, the Chester family packed up and moved out of the Buxton/Friendship area, after some family members were branded police informants, attacked, and their house set on fire. In April 2003, armed men shot and injured Brian Chester, one of the sons of family matriarch Edris Chester, and his reputed wife, Dionne Glasgow. Their Friendship home was sprayed with bullets. In August that same year, gunmen torched two Friendship houses belonging to Edris Chester and shot and wounded family members forcing the entire family to flee the area. After some time had passed, one son, Nkomo Chester, decided to return to the village, but he soon disappeared and has not been seen since. The family heard that he had been killed and made reports to the police, who followed leads and dug up several areas in the village, where they were told he had been buried, to no avail.
Buxtonians would not have forgotten these incidents. Like the rest of us, they are not very confident that the security forces can protect them from the other forces; hence the anger and chaos. If there were subversive elements among that group of farmers on Thursday, their job would have been made that much easier by the poor handling of the situation.
While Minister Persaud, because of his agriculture portfolio would have been the obvious choice to lead the talks on farmers’ compensation, he was perhaps not the wisest choice. The fragility of the situation called for a conciliatory approach, which is apparently not the minister’s strong point
One hopes that the minister and indeed the entire government learn from this experience so that their next approach is a more mollifying one. Spewing rhetoric with their chests puffed simply will not do at this juncture. The administration is calling for peace and must lead by example.
