…says Norway money being held up by World Bank processes
THE swearing in of the members of the Indigenous Peoples Commission yesterday has been heralded as another of the ways in which the interests and causes of people of Amerindian descent will be advanced.
Speaking after the swearing in ceremony at the Office of the President, President Bharrat Jagdeo said it is really a good day for the country since Government has been trying for a long time to put in places all of the Commissions that are part of the new Constitution.
Members of the Commission are Doreen Jacobis, Joseph De Souza, Yvonne Pearson, David James, Patricia Singh, George Simon, Father Malcolm Rodrigues, Norman Whittaker, Gerry Gouveia and Damian Fernandes.
“We have managed, with hard work, to get the Indigenous Peoples Commission sworn in. We anticipate that we [the Executive] will work closely with the Commission to ensure that Indigenous Peoples rights are protected and that there is an advancement of their cause,” he said.
The President added that Guyana is a unique country “where we have a Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, several dedicated Ministers at the Cabinet level, and now we have a Constitutional Commission for Indigenous People.” He spoke of the Amerindian Act which sets out a whole series of rights for Indigenous Peoples. “I think our example is used around the world,” he said.
“In fact, I was speaking with someone from the World Bank who came from the Philippines and he was saying that Guyana has the second best policy in the world in relation to Indigenous People. Of course he named the Philippines as the first but I don’t believe him,” he said lightheartedly.

Need for ERC
“We now need to build on the success. We need to reconstitute the Ethnic Relations Commission because that’s very important to promote harmony among our people and for the development of a harmonious society. It would be particularly important as we approach elections to ensure that no party, not a single party in Guyana, campaigns on the basis of people’s race, or their religion or their ethnicity or gender. And the Ethnic Relations Commission has to be in place to protect against those parties that may want to use this,” the President said.
He explained that the powers of the ERC are great under the Constitution. “If a party were to do this, then they can be barred from contesting the elections. We must all be very vigilant that people do not whip up racism around election time because they are some narrow-minded politicians who tend to do this. So this is why it is critical to get the Ethnic Relations Commission – the new one – back in place,” he said.
Asked what held up the process, President Jagdeo said that there is disagreement over who should make recommendations to the Commission. “The Opposition is saying let us stick with the old group that we had – the list of entities that made recommendations, and we said let’s expand this. We wanted to include, along with the Hindus, Christians and Muslims, we wanted to add to that body the Inter-Religious Organisation of Guyana, which includes Hindus, Muslims and Christians, but also had Baha’is and people from the Rastafarian Movement. We thought it would be much more inclusive. We have disagreement over that,” the President said.
“And we should be more inclusive, rather than excluding people. So we hope we could resolve that issue. If we do, then the recommendations are going to come from these organizations; and out of those recommendations, Parliament will make some recommendations to me and we will constitute the ERC,” he said.

Amerindian development
President Jagdeo said now with Amerindians receiving much focus in terms of the Low Carbon Development Strategy and the various initiatives geared to ensure the development of Amerindian communities, the work of the Indigenous Peoples Commission will become more interesting, since these considerations were not around during the Constitutional reform process in the early 2000s. But he said that apart from being more interesting, the work of the Commission will be more complex and exciting because there are so many initiatives geared towards the development of Indigenous Peoples, flowing from the Government’s programme and from the LCDS.
“So they would have to quickly look at those and probably assist to implement them [so that they] benefit people. We look forward to working with the Commission in this regard,” he said. He said that because so much attention is paid to Indigenous Peoples right across Guyana, the work of the Commission will be easy. “There was a time when the Indigenous People’s culture was seen as backward. No longer is that so in Guyana. Fortunately we are getting over that and that is good for our country. That is good for harmony among our people,” President Jagdeo said.
The President said that there is an Amerindian Development Fund that was set up years ago from which Government used resources for various projects. “The LCDS funds will flow through different mechanisms…there could likely be another development fund from which we will finance projects,” he said.

World Bank malaise
On when Guyana will draw down from the US$30 million from the Norway agreement with Guyana for the preservation of the forests, President Jagdeo was not sure.
“When the Prime Minister of Norway [and others] met in New York, we were told by the World Bank that in four weeks they will be ready. We’re still having difficulties with the World Bank. Norway has the money, Guyana has the projects ready. The problem is with the financial intermediary. Because of institutional malaise…old thinking…the World Bank has not risen to the level that it takes to intermediate climate change financing. They still need to learn much and to do much more in that regard,” said President Jagdeo.
Through the agreement with Norway, Guyana stands to benefit from funding in the vicinity of US$250 million until 2015.