Confirming that former advisor to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Yvonne Pearson’s services have been terminated, Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Sydney Allicock says that while the advisor was “very hard working”, as a new minister he wanted someone with fresh ideas and who he could trust.
Last week it was revealed that Pearson, who was the advisor to Minister Pauline Sukhai under the past administration, had been fired. Minister Allicock revealed that Pearson’s contract would have been up next month and it would not have been renewed.
Efforts by this newspaper to contact Pearson yesterday proved futile.
“Like everything in a new government I want to have persons who I can have confidence in,” the minister told this newspaper.
He praised Pearson for her work but pointed out that she was the advisor to the previous minister and that period has now come to an end. Since he has fresh ideas as to how he wants to improve the lives of the indigenous peoples, Allicock says he wants new persons to work with.
“I want to do some in-depth study of the indigenous people and I have some persons who I trust who want to help in this process,” the minister said, while stressing that he does not have anything against Pearson.
However, he said he believes he has a right to hire persons who understand the current circumstances of indigenous peoples.
“Miss Pearson was good in that period; this is another period and we need to give other people an opportunity to run with the new ideas which involves modern technology,” he said.
He suggested that maybe the former advisor could work in other areas and that a number of works done by her could be continued while some would have to be revisited. Her letter of dismissal was sent by the transition team set up at the ministry.
The minister also said that soon there would be elections for Toshaos of the various communities and he said unlike what happened under the previous administration the people would be engaged in this process.
He said that the people would be given an opportunity to lead the process instead of being dictated to.
Pearson, who was once the chairperson of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) and was a candidate on the PPP/C’s electoral list was also instrumental in bringing a number of Amerindian youths to Georgetown to protest the then opposition’s voting down of the $1.1 billion Amerindian Development Fund.
While the PPP/C had said that monies would be spent to continue its Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Pro-gramme (YEAP) in hinterland communities, the opposition had said it had concerns about potential misuse by the administration for electioneering and about the effectiveness of the projects to be funded.
