Dear Editor,
Kindly permit me a space in your newspaper to respond to a misleading article, published by the Guyana Chronicle on 2019.01.17 which was captioned: `Karasabai residents rail against PPP’.
According to the article “… dozens of residents of Karasabai in the South Pakaraimas, Region Nine, on Sunday staged a peaceful protest against the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in what they alleged are the party’s efforts to divide the community.”
Editor, in my capacity as Member of Parliament for Region Nine, I found the statement published as misleading, obnoxious and it bears no merit.
Upon arrival at Karasabai village, the Regional Chairman and I were informed by police ranks stationed at Karasabai that an AFC activist, Marlon Edwards, had applied for permission to stage a two-hour protest. The PPP public meeting commenced at 13:00 hrs on that Sunday at Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s Park. There were approximately 150 residents in attendance at the public meeting.
Marlon Edwards, accompanied by some schoolchildren, attempted to disrupt the proceedings at approximately 14:30hrs, but police ranks who were present at the meeting, upon seeing the approaching group comprising mainly the schoolchildren, immediately stopped the protest.
Parents as well as village elders stridently voiced their disapproval with Mr. Edwards for attempting to divide the people of Karasabai and using the helpless village children as pawns in his political gimmickry.
Being a village representative, Mr. Edwards was quite aware that the PPP public meeting was not a PPP/C campaign launch. The village Toshao was invited and he attended and spoke at the public meeting.
Editor, if Mr. Edwards had the village of Karasabai at heart, he could have attended the public meeting and learnt of the many issues affecting the Amerindians in Karasabai. Residents complained of Mr. Edwards’ political motives and other issues.
One resident complained that water pumps had been allocated to the people of Karasabai but had been exchanged for cows. These were among the many issues of grave concern raised by the residents of Karasabai.
Residents of hinterland communities are again being treated as third-class citizens, with retrogression in every sector since the advent of the coalition government.
In conclusion Editor, it is evident, throughout all the hinterland regions, that the lives of the indigenous peoples have taken a disastrous downturn with the change of government in 2015 and indigenous people are once again relegated to the back-burner of national development, as they were prior to 1992, when the PPP/C government established a Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and embarked on a drive to incorporate Amerindian people into the mainstream national development paradigm.
While ostensibly promoting indigenous people’s welfare, coalition leaders are instead eradicating the strength of the Amerindian nations, which is our village collaboration and an existence that has survived for centuries with the participation of all the villagers in every social and economic activity, a togetherness that the divisive actions of the coalition are seemingly intent on destroying.
Yours faithfully,
Alister Charlie
Member of Parliament
Region Nine
