Over 80 indigenous persons gathered opposite the Public Buildings yesterday to demonstrate against a move by AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan to slash $500M in supplementary funds sought for Amerindian communities for the remainder of the year but some of them said that they were promised increased stipends by the Amerindian Ministry for the protest.
The move to cut the budget was made because the AFC believes that the funds would not be used for genuine Amerindian development, Ramjattan told Stabroek News. “It is not for genuine Amerin-dian projects but just to buy Amerindian votes,” he stated.
Permanent Secretary of the Amerindian Ministry Nigel Dharamlall denied the claim made by some of the protestors that they were being paid, however, stating that the demonstration was not rehearsed and the ministry would not encourage such deceit.
“That is not true. Neither the minister nor myself would encourage anyone to do that and there has been no promise to the people,” he said. “It’s a choice of themselves,” he said, while adding that the ministry was in support of the protest because Amer-indians are being denied their rights to prosper. “It is an indictment by the opposition to deny the request of the Amerindian people to have their development,” he said.
‘They promised us money if we protest’
One protestor, Lorraine Martin, however said that she along with other students of the Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Project were promised an increase of their stipends if they would protest against the AFC and its leader.
Pressed as to who organised the protest, Martin said that they were approached by the Minister and ministry staff at a conference yesterday at the Guyana International Conference Centre at Liliendaal. “They told us that the opposition is cutting our budget that would provide help to the Amerindian people…so the minister met with us this morning and said that she would be debating today in Parliament,” she said. When asked how long they intended to protest, she said that they were waiting on the minister’s advice.
“They tell us that we should protest and then they brought us here after lunch,” another protestor, who didn’t want to disclose her name, said. “They promised us money if we protest,” the protestor said.
However, when Stabroek News was speaking to this person, two ministry workers tried to stop the interview and told other protestors to stop speaking. “They are youths that is supporting their minister,” the worker said.
They then chided the woman for speaking to media, repeatedly asking her what she had said. Protestors then became tight-lipped and shook their heads in refusal when asked for a comment about their demonstration.
‘Slush fund’
Meanwhile, Ramjattan questioned why the government was seeking more than what was budgeted for the entire year with just over two weeks before the end of the year. “So why is it that the government is coming on the 12th of December when the year ends on the 31 of December for such huge sum of money?” he questioned, while asking also why the proposal was not deferred for the 2014 budget when allocations would be more properly made.
He said that he was also baffled as to why the allocations should be made for spending to be completed on December 31 since $392 Million was already given for 2013. “What is it? Because we gave $392 million for the whole year and you want one hundred more than $400 million to be spent in one month,” he said, noting that his party had carried out investigations and found that the proposed money would be handed out to PPP activists who are Amerindians within the Amerindian areas. “It will be another slush fund in my opinion,” he said.
But the Amerindian Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai said that her ministry was just responding to a request made by toshaos at the National Toshaos Conference last month. “Subsequently, we have a job to do and these are the priority projects which they said they would like to have immediate response from the government,” she said. When asked how the ministry is expected to spend $500 million with less than a month remaining in the year, she said, “It’s not difficult because our ministry does not sit back.”
Demonstrators held up cardboards with slogans such as “AFC & APNU we youths will no longer have your support,” “Stop cutting our budget!”, “Ramjattan don’t have a clue how we live leave our $300000000 and plus,” and “We are not animals to be used.”
Peter Persaud, head of The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana, stated that the cut would deprive Amerindian communities of development. “They are cutting but they don’t know how the Amerindian people exist within communities. They just can’t go to parliament and misuse their parliamentary authority,” he posited.
Persaud said that if the $300 million was cut then the Amerindians would be left with nothing. “We need the opposition to be more considerate of Amerindian people because when they cut the budget the people suffers,” he stated.
