IT would not have been an easy decision for representatives of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) and the Minister of Amerindian Affairs (Pauline Sukhai) to stage a picket protest on Friday outside the venue of a workshop organised by the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA).

The workshop was an activity in relation to the government’s internationally recognised Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and, according to the APA, it was designed as a “knowledge-building” initiative for its members and others.

The association, therefore, criticised the picket demonstration as a violation of the right to freedom of assembly.

However, the peaceful picket demonstration was considered necessary, according to the NTC’s chairperson, Yvonne Pearson, in view of continuing misinformation and misrepresentations by the APA to undermine the LCDS in the face of significant consultations that have taken place since last year, and continues at various levels.

Back in June 2009, when the government published its draft LCDS for fundamental transformation of Guyana’s economy with combating climate change as a core feature, it was made known that stakeholders specifically invited for the national consultation process included:
** All parliamentarians of the National Assembly; the Toshaos and members of Village Councils;  representatives of the forestry  and mining communities, major private sector organisations as well as Guyanese and international non-government organisations (NGOs).
Political mischief since sown by elements bent on misguiding representatives of the APA to satisfy their own narrow, selfish objectives, have sought to confuse the objectives not only of the LCDS. They have also been misrepresenting the government’s commitment to ensure the basic right of the Amerindian community.
The similarities of recent criticisms of the LCDS and the consultation process by the APA and the Alliance for Change (AFC), for instance, may be coincidental.
But when considered in the context of behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings by some officials of the APA and the AFC, as well as by foreign elements seeking to promote their own anti-government agenda, it is perhaps too generous to speak in terms of a ‘coincidence’.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, now a member of the United Nations High-Level Panel on Climate Change, and who has been quite emphatic in declaring his government’s commitment to ensuring the fundamental rights of Guyana’s indigenous people, has never refused to meet with the APA to clarify any legitimate concerns, or provide answers to relevant questions.
What seems to be unfolding, however, is a deliberate politically-inspired strategy by myopic and opportunistic elements and groups to misuse a legitimate organisation  like the APA to the detriment of our indigenous people and the much wider Guyanese society.
It is a dangerous game that must be closely monitored, including the financing of activities and preparation of propaganda for media attention.
At the right time, the collaborators need to be exposed for the threat they pose to the best interest of the Amerindian people as they continue with anti-LCDS activities with the intention of causing problems for Guyana’s imaginative climate change policy.