THE National Toshoas Council’s (NTC) Conference is currently underway at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal. The conference is being held under the theme, ‘Good Governance and Fast-tracking Amerindian Development.’

The conference, which provided a forum for senior government officials and Amerindian leaders from over 212 Amerindian villages to meet under one roof, has proven over the years to be a good mechanism for the exchange of ideas and perspectives on how to enhance the quality of life of Amerindian and indigenous peoples. Indeed, it is a powerful collaborative mechanism between central government and representatives of Amerindian villages to chart the way forward for Amerindians, which historically had been under-represented in the decision-making processes of the country.

Under the colonial administration, Amerindians were kept at the periphery of national development. This under-representation and neglect of the Amerindian peoples and their development continued under the PNC regime for all of the 28 years of PNC dictatorial rule. It was not until the return of democracy on October 5, 1992 that Amerindians became an integral part of the decision-making processes with the establishment of a Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and several other policy interventions aimed at full empowerment of the Amerindian peoples.

Guyana is perhaps the only country in the whole of South America, if not the world, where senior government officials including the President, Prime Minister, Vice-President sit, interact, listen and communicate directly with Amerindian leaders for almost a week. The mood of the Amerindian leaders was best summed up by newly elected NTC Chairman Derrick John, who called on all Toshaos “to make full use of a government that wants to listen to us.”

“We have a government that wants to listen to us, that is willing to support us. Let us count ourselves fortunate,” Mr John remarked.

This is quite unlike what transpired under the previous APNU+AFC administration when Amerindian rights were trampled upon with impunity and their lives and livelihoods were interrupted through the vindictive actions of the previous administration. Scores of Amerindian workers were issued with termination letters due to their perceived loyalty to the PPP/C.

The fact is that there is a natural bond that exists between the PPP and the Amerindian peoples, which predated the PPP/C’s assumption of power in 1992. Indeed, the PPP had always represented the interests and well-being of the Amerindian peoples, since the days of PNC-rigged elections, when the PNC regime foisted ‘bogus’ Amerindian Toshaos on the Amerindian peoples in their respective communities.

All of that has now changed and Amerindian leaders are now elected in democratic elections. The entire landscape of Amerindian community development has now changed, with a plethora of policy interventions such as intensified land-titling; enhanced delivery of education and health services; specialised training for the oil-and-gas sector, tourism; agricultural development; food security; job creation; establishment of ICT hubs; cash grants and increased stipends for community leaders, among others. Under the hinterland electrification programme, some 30,000 hinterland homes will benefit from solar powered electricity through loans from the Indian Government and the Inter-American Bank (IDB).

These are indeed transformative developments aimed at integrating Amerindian development within the broader framework of overall national development.

Only recently, Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo assured Amerindian leaders that 20 per cent of Guyana’s land would go to its Amerindian peoples. He further stated that Amerindians will soon benefit from diagnostic centres to provide advanced health care in each of the four hinterland regions. These will be funded from oil revenues, and as a matter of policy, some 15 per cent of monies earned from the preservation of Guyana’s forests through the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) will go directly to Amerindian communities.

As pointed out by President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali during the opening ceremony of the five-day meeting, the PPP/C administration has invested more than $50 billion in the advancement of Amerindian communities and its people over the past two years to improve health and education; water delivery; community infrastructure; agricultural support; tourism; youth; education and training and social assistance for residents.

As President Ali noted, roughly 97 per cent of Amerindians have so far been reached by government ministers and other senior government officials, which together with village leaders have been instrumental in “breaking down walls that separate development from you and the people of your community.”

The PPP/C administration must be given full credit for bridging the developmental gap between the coastal and hinterland regions, despite the challenges. All of this is done, in the words of President Ali, “not just because we want to, but because you are no different from the rest of the population and you must be treated with the same respect, with the same dignity and honour like all of the population. Those are the fundamental principles that we adhere to, that we support.”