NEARING every elections’ year, Opposition Political Parties target the Amerindian communities, attempting to convince them that the Government is neglecting them.These communities are perceived to be facilitators to shifting the ‘balance of power’ to a Third Force in the local political arena. So, regardless of the well-documented and highly-visible reality that Government has sustained an unprecedented dynamism in the provision of services and social enhancement interventions in Amerindian communities, Opposition politicians and their allies in the media continually attempt to mislead them into believing that the opposite is true. They do this by obfuscating the facts and presenting false pictures of caring for their welfare, when, in essence, their manipulations and strategising can only lead to a derailment and/or an inhibitor of Government’s Hinterland development drive.

As in the current situation, where the APA, along with protagonists such as Janet Bulkan, are using nefarious arguments and strategies to stymie the momentum of Guyana’s Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which will benefit Amerindians in a very tangible way, because it can impel development in Amerindian communities at a highly-accelerated rate.
The APA and Janet Bulkan are supporters of an Opposition Party which they hope will be the catalyst that will lead to the removal of the PPP/C Government at the next General Elections. This is the nefarious agenda behind their prognostications, strategising, and ostensible caring of Guyana’s Indigenous peoples.
It is a sad reality in this country, and in many other developing nations, that individuals representing funding agencies arrive in the host countries either with pre-conceived ideas from false information fed them by Opposition lobby forces, or, upon their arrival, they immerse themselves in the socialising circuit and, without doing any comprehensive, non-prejudicial ground assessments, they join with individuals and organisations to direct funding whereby monies meant to help the disempowered and the vulnerable finds itself into the pockets of a few persons who term themselves administrators of skillfully-concocted ‘programmes.’ Whether the representatives benefit in any way, either in cash or kind, is moot, because they are not doing their work efficiently and effectively.
Their prejudice is glaring in the discrimination shown to the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO) which, because of its affiliation to the ruling party is denied assistance from funding agencies on the basis that the organisation is a political one.
But there is no organisation that has helped to empower women, especially in the rural communities, as the WPO has done for decades. Its formation and history of service to the Guyanese poor has been conceptualised and driven by this ideal.
And the argument of its political affiliation is a nebulous one, because there are several politically-linked organisations that have been receiving massive funding from International Funding Agencies and local bodies on the basis that they are helping to, among other things, curb violence against women (which is escalating), providing counseling services on HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, etc., but in reality little is done except that persons who used to stand at corners to catch minibus and live in rented apartments are now driving in RAV-4s and own near-palaces.
On the same basis of political affiliation funding agencies should look at the agenda of the APA and then determine whether it is representing the rights of Guyana’s Indigenous peoples or pursuing the interests of the political party of which it is an arm.
After much effort the Norwegians have recognised the solid case Guyana has to benefit financially from its rainforests through the Government’s LCDS, and, much to the credit of that country, they have acted upon that recognition. The Opposition has gone into a frenzy to deny the first people and other communities the benefits that would accrue from the Norwegian deal by attempting in various ways to sabotage the deal. Why in the name of God would they want to deny the Guyanese people badly-needed funds to mitigate the effects of climate change that is devastating our agricultural sector and our hinterland communities, in particular, and the Guyanese nation on the whole?
The United Nations has unequivocally supported Guyana’s Amerindian Act on the basis that Guyana has the second best Indigenous Act in the world, so why is the APA so intent on misinforming the Indigenous people that they are being discriminated against?
The APA’s contentions and the contents of Bulkan’s letter, written a while ago under the caption, “The basic data on which the LCDS ideas are founded are still to be placed in the public domain” belie the fact that, apart from nationwide interactions and consultations the media have been saturated with the LCDS on an almost daily basis.
The PPP/C Government has addressed the issue of Amerindian land rights when no-one else cared, with millionaire logging families grabbing Amerindian lands and mining companies destroying indigenous survival systems, including vital water sources.
While everyone is pursuing agendas inimical to the welfare of the Amerindian peoples, including funding agencies that support these individual and bodies, the Government continues on its path to provide relief to Guyana’s first peoples and to create systems and programmes that continually empower the indigenous peoples who, for decades before the advent of the current administration, were a marginalised, almost forgotten people in this land.
And while the developmental imperatives of this nation would be greatly accelerated if the Government’s LCDS generate additional income for this country, the Amerindian people’s welfare would always be given priority, because their contribution to the national development paradigm is now being given due recognition and respect by successive PPP/C Governments.