Dear Editor,
The APNU+AFC continues to dabble in semantics as the government seeks to create the impression that they have a plan for hinterland development which is different from and better than anything the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic government ever had in place. This is clearly an attempt at deception and can at best be described as a desperate effort to rehash/ redo what the PPP/C government has already successfully put in place with results that all can see and experience.
There is nothing new about President Granger’s ten point strategic plan for hinterland development. It could at best be described as a case of too little too late for APNU+AFC.
The PPP/Civic government did commit extensive resources and persevered during the period of our almost 23 years in government, to bring about positive changes and improvements in the lives of our Amerindian people whom the PNC had treated as recluses during their 28 years of misrule of our country. The latter now sheltering under the umbrella of APNU+AFC would have the Guyanese people believe that they are a new people born again, who welcome the opportunity to correct their wrongs of yesterday. Their 97 days in government thus far and their obvious failure to deliver or even supply evidence of intention to deliver on commitments they made to the Guyanese electorate to be honoured during their first 100 days in office clearly indicates that the more the APNU+AFC talks about change, the more things remain the same. This government clearly and obviously cannot be trusted to deliver the goods.
I wish to assist the government to wake up from its stupor. The PPP/C and our Amerindian people have made tremendous progress in realizing the improvements that the government now wishes to put on their front burner.
The PPP/C government worked with our Amerindian brothers and sisters and brought improved social services and infrastructure and, in the process, created for them wider choices in respect of goods and services, viz, quality education and healthcare, than were available to them before the PPP/C took office in October 1992. Better education and training have meant for some better jobs and concomitantly better earnings. Improved health care has meant for many healthier lives.
That many are now ministers of government, education officers, headteachers, doctors, health workers, medexes, dentexes, microscopists, nurses, agriculture officers, engineers, police and army officers, etc, is due in no small measure to the fervent and dedicated commitment and work of the PPP/C government in the area of access to quality education and healthcare for all ‒ and that includes our hinterland population.
Add to the above (i) the significant infrastructure support such as new, extended and rehabilitated airstrips; (ii) improved roads, and the provision of river and land transport, viz ATVs and outboard engines/boats for use by schoolchildren and other hinterland residents; (iii) radio sets and more recently landline and cellular phone services for use in hinterland administrative centres, schools, health centres, health posts and village offices resulting in improved communication; (iv) the provision of solar electricity and its use at these very institutions and even in homes; (v) the provision of potable water by way of solar pumps, water tanks/trestles; (vi) the hinterland housing schemes started in Regions1, 2 and 9 ‒ all under the PPP/C government.
The human rights and fundamental freedom of our Amerindian people are protected through our constitution and other legislative measures. Indeed our revised constitution specifically makes provision for Amerindian people. Article 35 provides that “the State honors and respects the diverse cultural strains which enrich the Society”. Amerindian Heritage Month, a PPP/C initiative provides opportunity for all Guyana to know more of this “diverse culture”.
Article 149 G of the constitution provides that “indigenous peoples shall have the right to the protection, preservation and promulgation of their language, cultural heritage and way of life”; while Section 212 S makes provision for the establishment of the Indigenous Peoples Commission.
This had already been set up under the PPP/C government. Our Amerindian people did not have to wait for a ten point strategic plan to activate such an important commission. I hope that the APNU+AFC will allow this commission to continue its work without the political interference evidenced in the dismissal of the 1,972 Amerindian Community Support Officers (CSOs), a beastly act pungent with the smell of ethnic discrimination. The IPC is an important medium for providing “the mechanism to enhance the status of Indigenous peoples and respond to their legitimate demands and needs.” This is the only commission designed to address the rights of a particular ethnic group in our society.
We must through all the media at our disposal deny the APNU+AFC the space and opportunity they continuously seek to deny the PPP/C and our Amerindian people the progress we collectively made during the period October 1992 to May 15, 2015 and support the PPP/C’s continuous efforts to bring further improvements; for development is a process which takes us from one step to higher steps up the ladder of success. APNU+AFC’s ten point strategic plan represents merely an attempt to cloud their failure to make provision for Amerindian development in their 2015 Budget and their dismissal of the 1,972 CSOs employed by the PPP/C government with the full support of Amerindian councils to work with the latter to help provide a wider range of quality goods and services to our Amerindian people.
Yours faithfully,
Norman Whittaker
