After the National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference this month, outgoing NTC Vice-Chairman Lenox Shuman and his partners will begin to build, network and put structures in place to establish a political party that will be grounded in Indigenous Peoples’ communities.
“We are not going to move the NTC into a political sphere. The intent was not to develop a neutrality statement and just leave it as a document. It would be a betrayal of the process, a betrayal of the people to develop a statement and turn right around and betray the essence of the statement. That is why we are not going to form a party any time before the conference or while I continue to be the Vice-Chairman of the NTC,” Shuman, 44, told the Sunday Stabroek in an interview on Friday.
On the idea behind the formation of a party seeking the Amerindian vote, Shuman, who made the announcement on his Facebook page, said, “We are very, very aware that the Indigenous vote is a swing vote. It is time that we actually start bargaining for what is right for us. We have seen a Neighbourhood Demo-cratic Council being gazetted without consulting the people. We have seen Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Sidney Allicock going into places like Micobie and Campbelltown and trying to convince those communities to come into the fold of a township. Those are violations of the people’s rights. We are not going to subscribe to that anymore.”