Dear Editor,
I wish to draw attention to a letter headlined ‘The indigenous people are wiser now’ in SN of January 28, penned by Martin Cheong.
I am not certain what qualifies Mr Cheong to pontificate on behalf of the Amerindians of this country but I will say without fear of contradiction that his comments constitute a misrepresentation. Mr Cheong obviously merely scanned sections of the 2011 Budget presentation with his prime focus on those areas that he felt fitted his pursuit of finding seeming deficiencies and shortcomings in the area of Indigenous development. It is obvious that Mr Cheong did not enquire into developments taking place in Amerindian villages and communities. Consequently, there could be and indeed there was no reasoned assessment of the various programmes, policies, projects and development plans of the PPP/C government by the writer. And indeed, I am reminded of a point made by my parliamentary colleague, Rev Dr Kwame Gilbert MP, in his presentation when, in describing the comments of the opposition on the budget he said: “If all you are looking for are faults; faults are all you will find.”
The writer suggests that government’s vision and plans for Amerindian development, especially in the areas of land demarcation and community projects revolve around the availability of the Norwegian funds. This farcical and illogical deduction is not borne out by Budgets 2006 to 2011. Indeed, the PPP began even before 1992 to plan initiatives geared towards the development of our Indigenous population. And that is why our annual budget has a focus on Amerindian development, such as education, health care, roads and bridges, transportation, water, electricity, land titling and demarcation, and the economy. And that is why also the PPP/C government perennially puts more and more resources to bridging the developmental gap between the coastal and hinterland communities, in spite of the challenges of remoteness and high cost of delivery of services. These commitments were not met from the Norway funds.
Eighteen villages have been demarcated at a cost of $ 164 630 802 and therefore at an average cost of $9 146 155 per village. This cost was financed out of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs’ annual allocation from government under the Amerindian Development Fund. This is certainly not Norway’s funds. And these are certainly not just numbers; these are facts.
The PPP/C Government has been continuously investing significant resources in income-generating projects in Amerindian communities as part of its efforts to expand the non-traditional sector; diversifying village economies and ensuring food security. These interventions include the National Hinterland Secure Livelihood Programme under implementation in 15 Amerindian communities in Region 1, targeting over 250 farmers directly and providing support for several emerging sub-sectors, viz, citrus, passion fruit, honey, livestock, aquaculture. To date, $79.3M has been expended on this project.
Add to this the disbursement of presidential grants totalling $590M over the years 2007 to 2010 to over 150 Amerindian villages/communities across the ten regions of Guyana to finance primarily income-generating projects of their choice, including commercial farming, poultry and cattle rearing; acquisition of minibuses and pickups; guest houses to support tourism; and in two cases, the provision of excavators to do mining, etc. You would appreciate my dismay therefore that all Mr Cheong could see are “a few token projects in our communities” and “a poultry pen and plant nursery at Liliendaal.” These income-generating projects are requested by the villages, are undertaken by the village councils using labour provided by the village itself and which benefit the villages. The result is that many of the earnings remain in the villages.
Mr Cheong must know that the PPP/C government has provided development support to Amerindian communities in the form of transportation, farm tools, solar panels, sewing machines and radio sets, to name but a few. May I point out also that ATVs, tractors, outboard engines, etc, have been given to a number of villages over the past three years to facilitate the movement of people and materials. I guess Mr Cheong feels that our Amerindians should continue to walk and to paddle.
Over 2000 solar panels (65 watt and 15 watt solar home systems) have been handed over to 2 000 households; 250 watt systems with inverters have been given to provide AC power for some schools in communities across Guyana. And as I pen this response I have in my view copies of letters of “Thanks” from many of the villages that are benefiting from electricity provided by our government.
It is good that Mr Cheong acknowledges that “our Indigenous people are more informed and wiser now,” but he excludes from his failed attempt at an assessment of our government’s investment in our Amerindians, the education and health care sectors. The building of schools, health centres and district hospitals; and the training of our Amerindian brothers and sisters as nurses, medexes, health workers and teachers is not “a promise” as surmised by Mr Cheong. It is a fulfilment of commitments made by the PPP/C government. We do not deny that there is always room for improvement, but let us recognize the progress we have made.
There are so many initiatives geared towards the development of our Amerindian people flowing from the PPP/C government’s programmes, and yes, from the Low Carbon Development Strategy. Amerindian development has been for us of the PPP and the PPP/C serious business.
Yours faithfully,
Norman Whittaker, MP
Liaison Officer
Minister of Amerindian Affairs
