Emotions ran high yesterday as residents of Mocha/Arcadia expressed their concerns to visiting US Congressman Jonathan Jackson over injustices they said they have been facing at the hands of the government.
The Congressman, who is the son of Civil Rights Activist, Reverend Jesse Jackson, was accompanied by Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy as he visited with the East Bank Demerara villagers to hear their concerns.
The meeting, which was held at the Mocha Community Centre, commenced peaceably despite the half hour late start. However, tensions slowly rose to a boiling point after opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Nima Flue-Bess raised her concerns to the Congressman.
Flue-Bess, who is also a Mocha resident, noted the community’s struggles to protect their ancestral lands and the devastating impact of flooding on their farms. On the latter note, she drew the attention of everyone present to some Caneview residents whom she said were displaced from their homes, by the government, for the purpose of developing the new four-lane highway. These residents, the APNU+AFC MP pointed out, were not in the way of the road’s construction when their homes were raided.
The MP then turned her attention to the issue of flooding that has been plaguing the community.
“The vegetables are currently under threat from flooding… From the time we have this government in 2020, they said they were building a bridge and they blocked the drainage canal; all the families lost. 2022, deliberate flooding was done to this community from water being drained from other communities into the canal; there’s no pump there. So, all the water is being flooded on our farmlands. And thirdly, 2024 now in this rainy season, I’m witnessing again, the loss of many crops as a result of work that is not done during the dry season,” she explained.
As she expressed her concerns to the Congressman, Flue-Bess presented him with a flash drive which she said contained video evidence of the damage caused by flooding. She also expressed concerns about the leases of residents’ lands not being renewed since the present administration took power and the impact it is having on farmers who have been farming for years.
“Thirdly, the invasions of our lands. We have lands in this community that many of our farmers have been farming for years… Could you believe the leases for many farmers are not being renewed since we had a change of administration? Hence, many of our people are operating in limbo; not sure what will happen or if a grader will come to grade them down. We have lands in Arcadia… our ancestral lands… we have ministers coming in, making their own arrangement, not engaging our elected officials on these particular matters. And so currently… the government has sent people to occupy our lands,” the MP alleged.
Immediately after Flue-Bess’ statement, Housing Ministry official Rawle Aaron took the floor to rebut what was stated. Among whispers then shouts of “lie”, Aaron stated that 27 of the 34 residents who were contacted about moving were relocated to areas such as Herstelling and Farm and are living comfortably.
Following Aaron’s explanation, one of the seven Caneview residents, Lashawna Ellis, who had chosen not to be relocated for the highway construction took the opportunity to explain her side. She pointed out to the US Congressman that those who opted to collect the government’s offer of $5m and move did not have livestock to consider when they were approached.
The 25-year-old mother of one further stated that the “completed” homes that Aaron alluded to that were given to residents are still in an incomplete state.
“As we speak, every day persons does be going back into housing… for me, we didn’t collect the money because $5m can’t build a house for anybody in Guyana. $5M cannot build a house for a family of nine. We had cattle, we had farms. Where were we going to put all of this when they relocate us to a residential area where you can’t do all these things? Most of our money, our earnings came from these things, and the government has put us in a situation whereby we can’t be comfortable…,” she lamented.
Opt out
Ellis went on to explain that despite their decision to opt out of relocation, she and her family and other residents were still forced to move after their houses were graded down. To cheers from the crowd, she further lamented the fact that she has paid for a house lot since last year but is yet to see it, but individuals from other countries have been coming to Guyana and being given lands within the space of two months.
Recalling the harrowing events that led to her family’s relocation, a visibly frustrated Ellis said, “On the 5th of January, when Housing came into our community, we were not notified about any of these things but I was dragged out of my home with my two-year-old child… she could talk about everything that happened on that morning… my daughter speaking on this thing all the time, all the time. And this is the thing that the government don’t see. That this traumatized our young children…”.
On the issue of trauma, the young mother noted that, to date, no form of counselling has been offered to the children or adults who would have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Instead, if counselling is needed, residents have to find their own money to pay for same.
Following the destruction of her home on January 5, Ellis had no choice but to take her daughter and move in with relatives. She told the congressman that she has now moved from a place of comfort to sleeping on the floor with her daughter, to this day. The woman closed by expressing her disappointment in the way in which the government is treating Afro-Guyanese.
“This has been going on for years,” she said.
Since it seemed to be the order of things initially, McCoy then took the microphone to address the crowd and to apparently rebut what Ellis had stated. However, this did not sit well with the residents who were present and a disruption occurred as they refused to listen to the minister.
Amidst shouts of “liar” and cries of “we ain’t want hear nothing from you”, McCoy tried in vain to explain that Mocha is a place that is close to his heart, etc. Not allowing the ruckus to stop him, the minister continued:
“It is really an affront to my reputation as a member of this government. I take it very seriously… we must be able to be factual and to be accurate… For those who are claiming racism at the hands of the government, let us just think about whether the issues that are before us have anything to do with race versus what the reality is. I know many of you came here well-coordinated from the APNU”.
At this point, the cries grew louder and McCoy eventually relinquished the microphone to the chairperson. As the crowd’s shouts simmered to a quiet, the Congressman requested to hear only from the residents.
“I would like to limit this conversation to the residents reporting to me,” he politely requested.
Applauded
This request seemed to satisfy the residents who applauded and the session continued with different residents taking the floor to state their plights. As the order resumed, another female resident took the microphone under the guise of airing her concerns. Instead of doing such, she took the time to inform the audience that she is a former opposition member, now turned PPP follower. This statement again excited the crowd as the shouts recommenced.
“I was with the opposition. I walked over. I am now with the present government because of frustration because when we used to be using these same lie… the opposition said… they are going to throw we off the very said land… and this very said government came in and said they are going to do infrastructure and going to help us… this is not a one-sided something,” she stated amidst shouts from the audience.
The woman finished her statement as members of the audience accused her of coming to disrupt and “bruck up” the meeting. Others shouted, “this is not the time for politics!”
The noise soon eased again, and residents continued to take the floor. Among them was Shevon Eastman, a councillor from the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and another disgruntled Mocha resident.
According to Eastman, she was arrested while attempting to safeguard her home during the demolition exercise. A vendor by profession, the woman noted that not only was her home destroyed but her shop was also demolished.
““They came the 3rd they broke the bridge. They came the 4th and they told us that they got to break the building. I said man, I am going to become homeless. When the police told me they have to break the place, I said you don’t have to because these people promised me a land at Great Diamond to relocate, and if you guys are not giving me this land to relocate to Great Diamond because it is in preparation, how can I move?” she explained to the attentive congressman.
An emotional Eastman further noted that, to date, she is still paying installments to Banks DiH Ltd for the over 900 cases of drinks that she lost during the disruption. Continuing her recall of her misfortune, she said:
“They just come on the 5th of January and bruk down everything, throw everybody on the road side. Mr. Aaron is who come and conquer and divide Mocha. He is responsible because from since this, from since the Caneview problem Mocha gone helter skelter. Helter skelter! Nobody living good with nobody because you know why? They pick out the few and they giving some hand downs to these people in this village and they trying to tell people ‘yuh cyan live good. If yuh ain’t come pon this side, well is no side’. Well, it’s wrong because if, if this is One Guyana, prove it to us!”
At this juncture in her discourse, Eastman turned and faced the stage to where a now quiet McCoy sat and addressed him:
“Minister you had the chance to come and deal with our problem. We wrote… letters on letters on letters to all these ministries are you guys… All these guys have is Aaron on the ground doing… he just distracting everybody and he coming and he lying and he lying and he lying and he lying, every day is a problem… Aaron is the cause for it”, she charged.
At the end of her lengthy discourse, Eastman expressed her desire for justice for the people of Mocha/Arcadia.
“We need justice. We are homeless people, and we are living uncomfortably,” she emphasized.
Yet another disappointed resident, Mark Hyman, claimed he visited the Central Housing and Planning Authority multiple times to resolve the issue after initially rejecting the government’s offer as insufficient. He reported to the Congressman that his cattle farm was suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed, leaving his animals vulnerable and some of them missing, with little notice or warning given.
Also present at the gathering was Vashti Fredericks, a resident of Peters Hall who traveled to Mocha to relate her story and that of other residents of her community. She invited the Congressman to visit the area to witness for himself what was going on with residents who are allegedly being bullied, by the government, to relocate in order to facilitate the construction of the new Demerara Harbour Bridge.
“It is a lot of disadvantage going on, terrorism and bullyism, I tell you that much. There was no legal document that came to us when this bridge start. They started the project and then they came to us, we had to move out in three months…the government had no policy for us, no principle, nothing at all,” she stated.
Fredericks was in the news before in a confrontation with Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill. At the time, Edghill and his officials had visited Peters Hall in an attempt to persuade residents there to relocate. The elderly woman had blatantly refused.
After the meeting, Congressman Jackson shared his intentions, with the media, to have a talk with President Irfaan Ali concerning the residents’ issues. He also pledged to relay all the information he gathered from the residents yesterday to his colleagues back home as well as members of the US Congress Foreign Affairs committee.
“I will share this information with my colleagues, the ranking members of the Foreign Affairs Committee as well as the Leader of the Democratic Party, and with my colleagues. And I will encourage them to come down here,” he stated.
During the meeting, Jackson stepped down and embraced some of the residents after they’d shared their emotional stories. Since arriving here, the Congressman has met with both government officials and members of the opposition.
