Dear editor,

THE talk of the town in Guyana is about land (talk is cheap). Music is in the air (bitter and sweet) but land is not, it is on the ground. It is interesting to note who owns most land in the world. Perhaps, what may be more interesting is, who owns most of the private lands in Guyana? By far the world’s largest non-governmental landowner, Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of the British Commonwealth and therefore legal owner of around 2.7 billion hectares of land, as estimated by The New Statesman. That’s as much as one-sixth of the earth’s land surface. The Catholic Church is estimated to hold an incredible 71.6 million hectares of land in its bulging real estate portfolio, an area larger than France. Needless to say, the Holy See is the second-largest non-government landowner in the world, with vast swathes of land in countries from Germany to India. The third are the Inuit people of Canada’s central and eastern Northwest Territories, holding the title to an enormous 35 million hectares in the region. Gina Rinehart, an Australian mining magnate and number one private landowner too, owns some 12 million hectares of land to be in fourth place. The world’s largest farm is the 9.1 million-hectare Mudanjiang City Mega Farm in China, jointly owned by China’s Zhongding Dairy Farming and Russia’s Severny Bur. The dairy farm, which is the size of Portugal, supplies the Russian market and is home to 100,000 cows that pump out 800 million litres of milk a year. They vie for the fifth position.
Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America, is compartmentally of many races and is the land of many waters with almost 87% of it composed of forests. The Indigenous peoples are the original occupiers and inhabitants of this land and owns some 14 per cent of it, most of them without legal titles to date.

They have conspicuously handled this affair in a sober, quiet and patient manner, much to their disadvantage. Guyanese reside mostly on the coastal belt in the three counties and are engaged in a number of agricultural products around the surrounding arable lands. Mining and forestry are operations in the interior. The city as well as the towns are congested and housing areas for livable space are available beyond these areas. The Guyanese society is a mixture of all levels of financial worthiness, the majority dominating the lower income level and representing the struggling class. Since the days of the arrival of the Europeans to current, it has been an uphill task for survival and most Guyanese have had to scrape the bottom of the pot for survival. While some have admirably advanced not to level the field, but to climb the ladder to a higher altitude, many have shrunk further to the lower rounds. Many sociological elements are factored into these attributes, the past governments are inclusive under different administrations. The echoing cry for land to build a house has reverberated a shrilling and cringing sound from the coastal belt to the mountainous areas in the history of Guyana.

From slavery and indentured days to independence and republic nights, this has been an on-going battle left unresolved and conveniently ignored by the past PNC and APNU+AFC governments during their terms of governance. They have tried unsuccessfully to harness this problem and it was only when the PPP/C government managed during their 23 years, much in-road was made with progress. The PPP/C perfected a plan on paper to a policy of production and perseverance. President Irfaan Ali, then Housing Minister, was the back bone for this success, having established an unbeatable record, only to be challenged under his leadership once again. Squatting has been an age-old dilemma and squatters squat for different reasons. Squatting is illegal and the biggest squatter remains the APNU+AFC party that was squatting in office for almost two years, occupying 83,000 square miles of land that belonged to the Guyanese people, but refusing to give up ownership! They have created an unbeaten precedent and thus, innocent Guyanese have succumbed to their mentality and have indulged in a patterned behaviour. They have illegally distributed lands to various entities, thankfully, five good-natured parties have returned the lands in good faith. They must be commended for their honesty and integrity. The APNU+AFC’s irresponsibility and inability to handle the squatting issue under their tenure, now becomes the problem baby for the new government. This stench will stink all the way to the next elections. The PPP/C government is once again forced to clean up their predecessor’s mess that dirtied the landscape of this nation. Do they have enough toilet paper and gloves? There is a shortage of potable water! COVID-19 doesn’t help the situation either!

Respectfully,
Jai Lall.