So the proverbial cat is out of the bag. The government lulled the country into believing that a landmark, revamped Amerindian Act had been in force since 2006. Enter citizen Mr Christopher Ram who exposed this charade in a letter to this newspaper in September when he pointed out that the Act had not been brought into force. There was then an uncomfortable and embarrassing silence from the government, usually a sign that it has been caught in flagrante delicto otherwise its defenders would have long been pressed into action.
During Thursday’s sitting of Parliament, the Minister of Amerindian Affairs Ms Pauline Sukhai tabled the Amerindian Act 2006 (Commencement) Bill which aims to repair this monumental deception committed on the populace and, in particular, the indigenous people of the country. The Explanatory Memorandum to the bill said that it sought to validate the commencement of the Amerindian Act 2006 with effect from March 14th, 2006. More specifically “It validates all acts and things done between 14th March, 2006 and the enactment of this Act which would have been lawful if the Amerindian Act 2006 had been brought into force by Order.
“All persons are freed, acquitted, discharged and indemnified from all liability and legal proceedings of any kind in respect of acts and things done between the 14th March, 2006 and the enactment of this Act”.
It was further stated in the Explanatory Memorandum that an Order was made bringing the Amerindian Act 2006 into force in April 2006. “This order was signed by the Minister but a Gazette copy cannot be found. Hence it is necessary to proceed by way of an amendment Act to bring the Amerindian Act into force and to effect the necessary validation”.
Not since the vitiation of the results of the 1997 election has the PPP/C had to scramble to save face and to avoid a minefield of legal complications. However, considering the healthy and justifiable public scepticism that is occasioned by the PPP/C’s manoeuvres, the government will have to convince the people that this was indeed an oversight that shockingly avoided detection by the supremos in that ministry rather than a deliberate act of omission.
The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, which was then led by the present Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues, should be asked to publicly present the paper trail leading to the supposed attempt to gazette the commencement order. Those guilty of lapses should be held accountable as Minister Rodrigues herself should be.
There has for sometime been concern about the possible backdating of gazettes to cover the unconstitutional non-assenting of bills. Not even the gazetting process can avoid the stain of chicanery under this administration. What a shame.
Now that the government has come clean and acknowledged that the Act was never brought into effect it must demonstrate good faith. Even if Minister Rodrigues and now Minister Sukhai had been labouring under the illusion that the Act was already in place surely both would have been acutely aware of the provision in the Act referred to by Mr Ram requiring the transferral of “20% of the royalties from mining activities to a fund designated by the Minister for the benefit of the Amerindian villages”. Since 2006, the money accruing to Amerindian villages from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission would have amounted to many millions. Quite interestingly, Mr Ram also pointed out that over this period that the GGMC transferred $1.8B to the government’s holding company-cum-investment gatherer, NICIL.
As the Minister who was most intimately associated with the exhaustive reform process for the Amerindian Act, Minister Rodrigues would have been aware that there should have been an annual transfer to a fund designated for the benefit of Amerindian villages. Did Minister Rodrigues oversee the establishment of the fund? Was the GGMC asked to make the requisite transfer? To what use was the fund put and how were these decisions made? Did it include consultations with toshaos and groups representing the Amerindian community and latterly with the National Toshaos Council?
The answers to these questions will demonstrate whether this government was really serious about root and branch reform of the Amerindian Act or just engaged in an exercise in duplicity. When she acceded to the office of Minister of Amerindian Affairs Ms Sukhai should have already been very knowledgeable about the Act. She is now responsible for knowing it like the back of her hand. Did she exercise her mind on the same questions about the Fund and how it was going to be utilised? And what about the very vocal chair of the National Toshaos Council, Ms Yvonne Pearson? Did she on behalf of the 170-odd Toshaos and the National Toshaos Council enquire into the quantum of the fund and how it could be applied to the benefit of all of the communities as opposed to just a few of the favoured, i.e. the ones kowtowing to the government? And what of the groups that profess to represent the indigenous people of this country? Indeed, what about the too-often slumbering media that shows little interest in the operation of these comprehensive pieces of legislation?
As the stakes for the control of the votes of the Amerindian communities are raised even higher, those who come to the fore purportedly on their behalf are increasingly of the types willing to unashamedly reap benefits for themselves whilst pretending that they have the greater interest of the Amerindian nations at heart.
Whatever the outcome of this pappy-show that has been put on by the government, it will gladden the heart of Amerindian communities to know that tens of millions have been accrued for their use from the last four years and though their toshaos confab has long disbanded there is no reason why there shouldn’t be an immediate reconvening to urgently discuss how to apportion these funds and their spending priorities. If it insists, the government can even propose that the funds allocated to these communities over the last four years be deducted from this allotment. However, given the kind of government it professes to be in public it would be most unseemly if it now turned around and presented such a petty outlook particularly with the Norwegian Government and GRIF management closely watching its disposition towards the indigenous communities.
This legislative debacle should be a signal lesson to the government that it must not be cavalier about important legislation. It also burdens future candidates of the PPP/C with the responsibility of answering how they can justify association with such bumbling and cynical governance. There can be no neat separations; there will ultimately be consequences for all those candidates associated with this increasingly reckless and incompetent government.
