FOR some years now some captains and councillors in Moruca have been behaving like legislators, making laws as they see fit to remove citizens’ sheds where they are selling to make a living.

The Captain and councilors recently ruled that Jocelyn De Silva, a mother and grandmother, be removed from the spot where she has been selling her food for over 25 years, overturning the previous captains and councillors decisions. This elderly Amerindian woman is a citizen by birth in Moruca and has served her community with honour and distinction. The captain and councillors rationalised their ruling by saying that she is not qualified for selling food on the spot.

A national consensus was met by the previous captains and councillors for her to ply her business. To understand the Amerindian Act one must first understand the assumptions of Amerindian and the basic tenets of the laws. A society’s well-being depends on ensuring that all its people feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society. This requires all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being. Are the captains and councillors of Moruca now going into the polling business before rendering decisions? Isn’t turning consensus into laws or institutions a change in law a function of elected legislative bodies?
This ruling by the Captain and councillors, alas, is not unusual, since some captains and councillors in this country’s Amerindian communities have increasingly usurped powers they previously hadn’t had. Not content with their usurped legislative powers, the Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs should not reward them on a very personal basis.
Our former British rulers would be aghast at such powers by some captains which make a mockery of the separation of powers and the checks and balances that they took such pains to enshrine in the Guyana Constitution. Good captaincy is both a goal and a process. It only can help us to find solutions to poverty, inequality and insecurity. It creates an environment in which civil organisations, the business community, private citizens and other institutions can assume ownership of the process of development and the management of their communities. The government has always placed high importance on land divestment, distribution and allocation to the Amerindian population. Public land distribution is seen as vital to the social and economic development of our country and I do hope the captains and councillors understand this policy.