Opposition parliamentarian Yvonne Pearson yesterday told government to quit whining about ills inherited from the previous administration and show the indigenous people of the country specific benefits of this year’s proposed budget.
“Any government that takes over a country, and once you talking about development, there will be things that needs fixing and in order to further enhance development you have to fix it… so fix it ,” Pearson, clad in Amerindian headwear and accessories, told the National Assembly yesterday when the debate on the government’s proposed $230B budget continued.
However, Junior Minister of Amerindian Affairs Valerie Garrido-Lowe rebutted, challenging Pearson to peruse the budget, where she said there is a plan for development of the country. She added that for the indigenous community, there are specific programmes geared to benefit the young and old and also mechanisms in place for the upward mobility of future generations.
Pearson’s critique of the budget focused on benefits for Guyana’s first people, whom she believes have lost confidence in the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs over its lack of provision for them since the new government was elected last May.
She said that government promised the replacement of the PPP’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Programme (YEAP) with its own Hinterland Employment Youth Service but to date only one community has seen the programmed launched there. “We can no longer accept these kinds of actions and decisions on our people,” Pearson asserted.
She added that while this government continues to blast the PPP for the “starvation” of the indigenous people during its rule, she was yet to see this issue addressed. “In this 2016 budget, how the government aims to solve all this problem of starvation…how we are going to address it in the 2016 budget?” she asked.
“How and what provisions have been put in place to feed our people or to stop starvation in our community?” she also questioned.
The former advisor on Amerindian Affairs turned to stated allocations for the building of 211 village economies in communities countrywide. She said that under the PPP there used to be assistance with items, such as sewing machines, ATVs and other machines to Amerindian communities, but this was condemned as giving handouts, although it served good purposes.
“You say you have to teach a man to fish so you don’t give him a fish every day but in so doing when you teaching a man to fish you might still have to give them the rod, the bait and even show them where to fish,” she noted.
According to Pearson, while government claims that it consulted indigenous groups before the formulation of the budget she has not seen this and asked for the evidence. “How many youth participated in that consultation?” she questioned to which Social Cohesion Minister Amna Ally replied, “Too many to mention.”
Paint
Fellow opposition parliamentarian Allister Charlie echoed some of Pearson’s points but asked that monies for capital projects not be used to paint national buildings and public places in green and yellow, the colours representative of the coalition government.
“We have green and yellow painted everywhere, even on government buildings, school buses and… I can go on and on…I won’t be surprised if even the Umana Yana is painted in yellow and green,” he said.
Speaker of the House Barton Scotland warned that green and yellow were colours on Guyana’s Flag and “cannot be an object for lampooning.”
The speaker’s interjection did not go down well with Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, who rose on a point of order challenging him. “The colours of our flag are many colours. The issue being raised here by the Honourable Member is that we cannot only select some colours of our flag, sir. Therefore, the member is speaking about government buildings. Our party’s colours are on the flag too sir but we didn’t paint them on government buildings when we were in office and, sir, you cannot be unfair because the member is talking about party colours on government property. I’m sorry sir but it cannot be right,” Teixeira said to the thunderous banging of agreement of opposition members.
However, in the middle of her delivery, the speaker had her mic shut off but she continued until she had completed her argument.
Scotland, without acknowledgement or mention of Teixeira, then instructed Charlie to continue.
For her part, Garrido-Lowe dismissed the criticisms of the opposition presenters by saying that Guyana’s first people was getting their “fair share of the pie.”
She explained that budget 2016 was part of government’s rounded plan to wean the indigenous peoples off of the dependence of handouts and equip them with education and the skills necessary to be self-reliant and subsistent. Towards this end, she said that government will be implementing skills training in communities to alleviate poverty as they also bridge the gap of the hinterland to the city in all five facets of the budget.
She said that unemployment rates, especially among the youth, are high but most cannot obtain their required earnings as they have no skills to match.
Garrido-Lowe said that it was not logical to give the infrastructure enhancement alone when persons in the communities, especially youth using them, do not have the knowledge to operate or make use of it.
“How can the community’s tractors be taken for repairs when no one in the community is trained in motor vehicle repairs? How can a modern water system operate efficiently when there is no one to fix it? How can we expect our youths to produce desks and benches for our schools if they never have any training in carpentry and joinery and do not have the money to purchase their tools? How can we expect them to be young entrepreneurs when we do not afford such training to them?” she questioned.
She also rubbished criticisms from the opposition that 1,972 youths from the YEAP programme lost their jobs in 2015. She noted that they were not real jobs but a $20,000 per month handout paid for the most part for the campaigning they had done for the PPP.
Garrido-Lowe noted that government is partnering with the USAID Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment (SKYE) project to train youth and offer them a $50,000 grant that they can use to start-up businesses.
She added that a collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism would also see youths trained as tour guides for their communities and their environs so they too can earn incomes.
Highlighting educational and vocational programmes, Garrido-Lowe pointed out that sport development in hinterland communities has not been forgotten. In the 2016 budget, $2.5M is allocated for sports gear for regions 1, 8 and 9.
Provision has also made for the building of a dormitory at Liliendaal for students interested in accessing institutions of higher learning in the capital. “This is just the beginning of real development for our indigenous population,” she said. She emphasised that the government is frontally addressing poverty by equipping youth with skills and they can in turn continue the cycle of knowledge sharing. “…We need to train out indigenous young people, start preparing them for the world of work, [and] leadership roles in their communities,” she added.
