AMERINDIAN Affairs Minister, Ms. Pauline Sukhai has expressed her conviction that Opposition Leader, David Granger is very fearful of the transformative progress taking place in the indigenous people’s community.

Granger had expressed the view that the government is seeking to buy votes through the budgetary allocation for Amerindian development.

At a press conference on Friday, Sukhai explained that the Opposition Leader had visited Paramakatoi about a week prior to the budget presentation, and did not get the anticipated level of responsiveness from the people of that community.

The minister explained that most of the votes in Paramakatoi during the last General Elections had gone to A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). Therefore, when Granger was met by only 31 persons from that community during his most recent visit, he must have suffered a huge psychological blow.

Sukhai said Granger had indicted to the Amerindian people with his recent statement made, as they have to take the backlash from him whose expectation had not been met, because he was not treated in the manner in which he had been accustomed to in the past.

The minister revealed that a female contributor had told the ministry that during the days of the People’s National Congress (PNC) administration, the Amerindian communities had to raise a monthly target of $27,000. They would be instructed to find the money by whatever means, and deliver same to Congress. They were chastised by PNC members if they failed to do this.

The Amerindian people are now calling for Granger and other persons who were, or still are, members of the PNC to refund their money for the PNC congresses they would have attended and provided financial contributions.

The minister assured that all young indigenous people had received their stipends up to the time the ministry had funds available to issue them, and as such, the budgetary allocations have nothing to do with vote-buying or political bribery.

She added that the young people in these indigenous communities are in need of support from the government, and as such, the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will continue in its quest to build and foster hope for Amerindian development throughout Guyana.

Land titling and demarcation, and community development plans that foster economic transformation of Amerindian village economies, were all put on hold last year after the combined political opposition slashed $18.4B allocated for the LCDS.

This year, $19B targeting Amerindian Community Development was slashed from this year’s budget, reducing the allocation to $1B. The priorities significantly stalled were the Amerindian Development Fund, Amerindian land titling, the Micro and Small Enterprise Development, and Building Alternative Livelihoods project.
By Ravin Singh