PLEASE allow me to respond to an article in the Kaieteur News under the caption “Pearson questions agenda of dissenting Toshaos” in its issue of Saturday November 6, 2010.
I wish to state the following:
(1) The head of the National Toshao Council (NTC) Ms Yvonne Pearson was quite in order when she questioned the political agenda of the Toshaos of the upper Mazaruni who refused to sign the NTC’s conference resolution in support of the LCDS on the basis of lack of consultation and free prior and informed consent.” This is total dishonesty and pure balderdash.
(2) The Toshaos of the Upper Mazaruni are known activists of the APA and their refusal to support the NTC’s conference resolution should be of no surprise. But what they are doing is that they are making a mockery of the International Indigenous Human Rights principle of free prior and informed consent. They are politicising this human rights principle and must be condemned in the strongest terms.
(3) They are liars when they said that they do not understand the LCDS and REDD+ Strategy. Are they not reading the booklets on these strategies given to them by the office of Climate Change and the Guyana Forestry Commission? Didn’t they absorb anything taught to them by the Amerindian organisations when they conducted further awareness sessions on the LCDS after the sub-national consultations last year 2009. If they claim that they do not understand the LCDS why didn’t they raise this matter at the recently concluded NTC conference? Why didn’t they tell the President who positively interacted with Toshaos at the conference that they do not understand the LCDS?
(4) The eight Toshaos of the Upper Mazaruni are blatantly dishonest and should resign with immediate effect under section 25(1) of the Amerindian Act 2006 because they are putting themselves in a position where their duties to their villages are in conflict with their personal and other interests. They definitely need to demit office and remove from the way so that young and rationalised minds can take on the mantle of genuine village leadership.
(5) Section 22(1) of the Amerindian Act 2006 states that “a Toshao shall report to the Minister on matters which affect the village.” If the LCDS is a matter that is affecting the villages, why are the Toshaos of the Upper Mazaruni not seeking the advice of the Minister of Amerindian Affairs? This shows clearly that they are serving their personal and other interests which are clearly political. Then they are quick to shout “lack of consultation and free prior and informed consent.” This is nothing but pure hypocrisy on the part of the eight Toshaos of the Upper Mazaruni who are affiliated to the APA, an anti-government NGO that is backed by foreign paymasters to kill projects that would benefit the indigenous peoples of this country. This is what they intend to do to Guyana’s LCDS, our national vision to fight against global climate change and its dangerous consequences. But they shall fail.
(6) The international donor agencies such as the World Bank, Norway and others need to take full note of the political agenda of the only eight Toshaos at the recently concluded NTC conference who are trying to frustrate the implementation of Guyana’s LCDS. But they shall fail.