President Jagdeo slams opposition for calls to boycott Toshaos summit
– and World Bank for hindering hinterland development
HIS Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo, who delivered the feature address at the opening ceremony of the National Toshaos Council Meeting 2011, held yesterday at the Guyana International Conference Centre at Liliendaal, slammed detractors who called for a boycott of the event.
The President said the event provided Toshaos of Amerindian communities with a national platform to deal with vital issues relevant to the development of their respective communities, and they should not allow any force to detract them from that focus
Expressing sentiments to the effect that seeing Toshaos of the various first peoples’ communities congregating together in Georgetown to have dialogue on the way forward for Amerindian communities, President Bharrat Jagdeo informed the gathering, which comprised of members of Cabinet, AFC co/leader Raphael Trotman, Members of Parliament, PPP/C Presidential Candidate  Mr. Donald Ramotar, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and the Private Sector, and other special invitees, that this would be his last address as President to a Toshaos Council, to expressions of regret from the audience.
He lauded the resilience, sense of purpose, and the never-ending optimism of Guyana’s first peoples, who have braved “so much for such a long time, which commands our admiration”.
To loud applause, the President made special mention of and acclaimed the “….excellent job leading the National Toshaos Council” done by Mrs. Yvonne Pearson, Chairperson of that Amerindian organization.
Do not be disheartened by negative comments
He encouraged, “Do not be disheartened by the negative comments of a few (persons) who write in the newspapers or get on T.V.  We don’t serve them.  We serve the wonderful people who are gathered in this room.”
The President was alluding to Mrs. Pearson’s angst over comments written by anonymous writers in the opposition media who called the members of the indigenous communities “tools” and “faithful subjects”, to which she responded to the effect that the Toshaos are tools to work toward the development of their people; and are the faithful subjects of the communities that they represent, and suggested that they boycott the event.
“In any case,” stressed the President, “they are not representative of the feeling in our county…from another generation.  Many of them are so cowardly that, as you (Mrs. Pearson) said, they write without putting their names.
“But they come from a generation of the past, and the mere fact that they are suggesting that we should not have this conference here, and the people who come to the conference are somehow complacent…compliant with a government agenda, (themselves) represent an agenda, and represent an old mentality that they few can speak on behalf of Amerindian peoples.”
This thinking the President relegated to another era and, to loud and prolonged applause, posited that Amerindian people have a voice to hear – in policy-making in Guyana.
Amerindians have a voice
Referring to claims by the collective opposition that works in progress in Amerindian communities are Government’s ploy to win votes during this election year, President Jagdeo said, “…they disregard that this meeting has been held five times now…every year we meet here and we talk about these issues…days and days spent going through tough issues of development in these communities.”
However, the President disparaged the nebulous concerns raised by detractors that this year’s National Toshao’s Council was held because 2011 is an elections year.
The President pointed out, “…they have never worried about the past four meetings, and about your concerns then; or whether you were being used then (for political purposes); but suddenly this year… the same conference (is) being held, the same kinds of issues that we are going to be addressing, they are worrying about you being used.”
President Jagdeo said that these thoughts are coming from persons whose thinking came from another generation, but he asserted that the PPP/C has had to fight to say that “…you cannot relate to Amerindian people in a condescending manner anymore, because our people have moved to a point of determining their own future.
“They are capable of creating policies to lead their own communities; and they are a very important part of this nation.  They are not a sideshow to this nation.  They are not another group of people forgotten from the mainstream (society) of this nation.  They are right at the very centre of this nation, and we are seeing manifestations of it over, and over, and over again.”
Citing Foreign Affairs Minister, Ms Carolyn Rodrigues-Birket, as one such manifestation of a “… young Amerindian woman (who) speaks on behalf of Guyana at all international fora – the first Amerindian woman Foreign Affairs Minister ever produced by this country”, the President said that this is as a result of government’s policies.

Current development is fruit of PPP/C pre-1992 manifesto
On the opposition contention that the last party that speaks to the indigenous peoples secures the Amerindian vote, the President flayed the detractors ., saying “…they don’t believe that you have to work to earn people’s respect…they believe they can turn up with patronage and whoever gets there last gets the vote.”
However, the President assured, “Today is not about voting…Today I want to talk to you about how far we have come, and how central you have become to our future.”
Referring to Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai’s address, the President drew attention to the many development initiatives that she outlined that have taken place in Amerindian communities, and stressed that these programmes were the fructification of a developmental blueprint drawn by Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the PPP for the country, even before the PPP/C assumed the executive office.
“This was part of our manifesto before we restored democracy to Guyana, and it became an essential part of all that we are, and that we will continue to be in the PPP.”
President Jagdeo stressed that it is the intent of the PPP and the current government that every single Guyanese – regardless of race, religion, or from where they originate, must access, “…equal opportunities; if not equal, because nothing is equal in the world, but must be treated equally in the light of our constitution, and before our laws; and they must have equal access to the resources of this country.”
Amerindian children previously denied rights to further education
He recalled that for a very long time Amerindian communities, and the children in particular, were denied rights as coastland children; because the height of their ambition was to attain primary school, with any further educational pursuit almost unattainable.
“The State (then) did not see it fit to provide additional opportunities for your children… We have seen now how bright these kids are and how well they do when they get opportunities.”
He said that the PPP/C Government’s support for and development of Hinterland communities should be supported by everyone because everyone has equal rights in this country and, while nothing is perfect, “…hundreds of your kids go to secondary schools… hundreds of others are here in Georgetown… close to a hundred are abroad studying.”  All of these are paid for by the State, revealed the President.
President Jagdeo outlined the development path that the Government has pursued in hinterland communities, including the titling of lands, which he described as an emotive issue for the Amerindian people, whom he referred to as the stewards of significant amounts of land for a very long time, without any security of tenure.
Despite many opportunities by the government of the past, they neglected to provide Amerindians with the right to own their lands, recalled the President, who assured that the PPP/C will continue to aggressively pursue the issue of Amerindian land rights.
He revealed that Guyana is one of a few countries that has given sub-surface rights to its indigenous communities, which is a more progressive policy than that of many other developed countries that come here and preach and prognosticate – most often erroneously, on issues which they themselves cannot measure up to Guyana, because this country’s treatment of its first peoples communities is described as a model at international fora.
Treating all Guyanese as equals
“They will never get anywhere near what we have done for dispossessed people and Amerindian people here in Guyana.  The way they treat their indigenous people leaves a lot to be desired, so we are a model country in treating with Amerindian rights in Guyana… This agenda will continue, because it is not a Jagdeo agenda (but) it is an agenda of the party that I come from, an agenda that, from the very beginning, sought to treat all of our people as equals, an agenda that believes that all the children are important, an agenda that believes that the only way that we can look people in their faces… with a clear conscience, is if we make every effort to develop every bit of our country and to have all of our people benefit from the development taking place.
“We will continue this agenda,” promised the President.
He pointed out that the government has provisioned the law by which the state is obligated to pursue a request, in a timely manner, by an Amerindian community for title to the lands they occupy, which is another empowering mechanism by which Amerindians enjoys equal opportunities of owning things in this country, which is a means of wealth-creation, because that title comes with many rights, including veto rights to mining and other commercial activities.
He said Guyana’s economy is poised to take off and recalled the tough past, when the PPP/C inherited a devastated country, with a debt burden that took 94% of this country’s revenue to service, with another 14% going toward public service wages and salaries.
However, some was repaid, some were written off, and today Guyana is economically solid, which is the result of a “… sound economic policy”, which has enabled development transformation of this country – community by community, in incremental stages in direct correlation with the reduction of the debt burden that once sat on the shoulders of this nation like an albatross.
Government essential policy is wealth-creation
President Jagdeo said that if the country does not create wealth it cannot distribute the wealth; so the government has focused on a wealth-creation agenda, despite the difficult starting point.
“We have pursued an economic policy that sought an expansion of economic activities, and our economy today is several times larger than it was: Our revenue base is larger than it was,” assured the President, “… our economy expanded, our revenue base expanded… and because we managed to get rid of this debilitating burden from our past, today we use 4% of our revenue to service debt – that is from 94%.  No other economy has that record, particularly in this hemisphere.”
The President used an analogy whereby he described Guyana as having dug itself into a deep hole, because of bad policies, a lack of democracy and other factors; but today the nation has reached surface level and is now beginning to climb to heights of development; this, despite repeated attempts by detractors to pull the Guyanese nation downwards into the hole once more.
He promised accelerated development multiplied ten times over, because the crippling debt, the destroyed economy, and the undemocratic institutions have been effectively and successfully addressed by this government and the future looms brighter for the Guyanese nation as a result.
He highlighted the advantages that could accrue to the hinterland communities with the learning channel and governments Information Technology initiatives, stressing that systems would be put in place to enable access of every community of these essential prerequisites to development.
“Here in Georgetown we are (developing) other approaches, which will lead eventually to us exporting educational services…I can assure you that indigenous people – our Amerindian brothers and sisters, that (your) children will be an essential part (of this)
“We have already embarked on a project that you are all party to, that will see the transformation of every village economy into a stable producer of food, for food security purposes… economic activities that would earn income for the communities and would create empowerment.  We are allowing the ideas to come from the communities themselves.”
Bretton Woods institutions over-staffed, has discriminatory policies
He lashed out at a perennial bugbear, which is a constant irritant to the development paradigm of this country – the policy of the Bretton Woods institutions, which the President described as institutions that provides jobs for personnel who have no relevance, stating that he would have gotten rid of half the persons who were virtually ineffective in the World Bank, but who are funded at the expense of poor third-world countries for luxury trips to make examinations and write erroneous reports of things they do not know about.
About funding for projects such as providing hinterland and other communities with essential services, as an example energy through solar panels to each home that is not connected to the national grid, the President flayed the World Bank for withholding the GRIFF funds that has already been paid by Norway into an account.  He said that the money is Guyana’s money and not charity doled out by the World Bank.
“…I know tomorrow this is going to be very controversial… in the newspapers, but I have never been shy of controversy, because I believe you have to speak the truth; and, frankly speaking, if  I were dealing with the World Bank and some of the other organizations, including some UN organizations, I’ll cut the staff by half, and get twice as much work out of (the rest)… because you have a bureaucracy dedicated to creating jobs for people…”
The President declared that he was not awaiting the Norway payments and Government has invested US$3 million from state coffers to buy solar panels for hinterland communities.
“The US$70 million is money that we earned – that was paid…The Prime Minister of Norway said that money is payment for services.
“We said we would use some of the money to accelerate the (land) demarcation…We don’t have enough money in the budget because it is very costly to do the demarcation.”
The President revealed that the money planned to accelerate the demarcation of lands is sitting in a Guyana account but it cannot be accessed by the Government because of the World Bank’s punitive and irrelevant policies.
“If we can’t (access the money) then we will have to use our own money.  I am not waiting on any international organization to slow down development in this country,” said the President, to loud applause.
“People who lecture (to) us on good policies are unprepared to take good policies themselves,” lambasted the President, as he lamented the retraction of some countries to the climate change fight and their lack of responsibility to a phenomenon that is threatening the world.
A country without freedom cannot achieve full prosperity
The President said, “In this country we’ve come a long way… from days when, to speak out against the government landed you in jail, or suspended you from school.
“(If) you check the newspapers today and turn on the TV you will see the kind of democracy we have.  A lot of the things that they publish are fabrications, but at least we defend people’s rights to be free and to speak freely in this country…a country without freedom cannot achieve full prosperity.”
The President also stated, unequivocally, that the coming elections will be observed by international observers – that the OAS, EU, Commonwealth, CARICOM, UNASUR, and the Carter Centre will be invited once more to ensure that we have clean, fair elections.

“…thankfully, we will never get back to the past, but don’t take these freedoms for granted….If you don’t defend freedom, you lose it,” warned the President .
“…freedom to speak freely, associate freely, pursue the path that you want for yourselves – the right to be an equal part of this country, the right to determine what government’s policies are in relation to your communities. You are important from that perspective,” urged the President.
He revealed that government is considering a proposal to honour, in a special way, the first indigenous woman to receive her doctorate, the late Minister Desrey Fox, who was “…a dear colleague and friend in our Cabinet.”
The President concluded by listing some of the main issues that would be dealt with over the duration of the meeting at the convention centre, where the President and the entire cabinet would be at the disposal of the Toshaos.
At that event, chaired by PS in the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, Colin Croal, the hinterland scholarship students demonstrated how far they have come as they confidently introduced key persons and presented cultural items.
Amerindian Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai, also addressed the gathering.