PEOPLE’S Progressive Party Member of Parliament Anil Nandlall’s petition to suspend the standing order to move an adjournment motion to have the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into land issues dismantled, was not allowed by the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Barton Scotland on Thursday.
Nandlall in his letter to the Speaker referenced Standing Order 28:3 and described the motion as one of urgent public importance. However, while the Speaker deemed it important, he said that it was not urgent and therefore labelled it as being out of order.
Upon hearing this, Nandlall got to his feet in an effort to protest the Speaker’s decision. “I wish to be heard sir”, Nandlall said, after being asked by the Speaker if he is rebutting his decision. “Are you preventing me sir?” Nandlall asked as he tried to present the motion to the House though it was initially rejected. The Speaker’s rejection of same, resulted in the entire Opposition side of the house standing in solidarity with their colleague. Numbers however did not move Speaker Scotland who said, “there is nothing in the Standing Orders that will allow that to be reversed.”
The CoI into land issues was established on March 11, 2017 by President David Granger to examine all issues and uncertainties surrounding the claims of Amerindian land-titling, the individual, joint or communal ownership of lands acquired by freed Africans and on any matters relating to land-titling in Guyana. The seven-member Commission, led by Reverend George Chuck-A-Sang, is mandated to submit its final report, findings and recommendations to the President, on or before November 1, 2017.
However, in his ‘whereas ,’ Nandlall argued that the Commission “was established without any ‘Free, Prior and Informed Consent’ consultations with the National Toshaos Council – the sole and legitimate representative body of the Amerindian peoples and communities, and, the recognised non-governmental organisations representing Amerindians in Guyana.”
The PPP parliamentarian pointed out that the National Toshaos Council and its supporting organisations have all condemned the establishment of the CoI as a mechanism to guide the process of addressing the land issues as they relate to the Amerindian People of Guyana.
It is Nandlall’s belief that the Amerindian Act of 2006 provides a unique, comprehensive and robust legal framework that addresses Amerindian land rights and Amerindian communal land -titling“forever and absolute” with “Free, Prior and Informed Consent” of the Amerindian communities, in accordance with the Constitution of Guyana, statutes and international law.