Nandlall says land rights CoI will create greater ethnic polarisation in Guyana

Having a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to look into the joint and communal ownership of lands acquired by freed Africans and the claims of Amerindian land titling will only lead to greater polarisation in Guyana, Opposition PPP/C Member of Parliament (MP) Anil Nandlall has said.

Nandlall told this newspaper that Guyana is already polarised along ethnic lines, and the CoI would only compound this issue, especially between Afro-Guyanese and Amerindians.

“This CoI seeks to commingle and intersect the right of Amerindians to traditional lands with the rights of Afro-Guyanese to ancestral lands which were brought by the freed slaves. We are saying they are completely different issues,” Nandlall contended.

He has suggested that President David Granger establish a CoI to deal specifically with Afro-Guyanese ancestral land issues. “We are not opposed to that, but we are saying that it has no scientific, historical, theoretical or practical basis to have one commissioned to deal with the two issues.”

Another concern of the Opposition MP is that the CoI had been set up without any consultation. Nandlall told this publication that the National Toshaos Council (NTC) and other major Amerindian organisations have all said that they were not consulted before the CoI was established.

There have also been reports that people who have been selected to serve on the commission are unknown to the Amerindian people and the many organisations that represent their interests.

“You cannot keep foisting decisions on people; that is not consultative democracy,” Nandlall posited.

During Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly, Nandlall, with the support of his colleagues in the Opposition, had tabled a motion calling for the revocation of the appointment of the CoI.

However, it was subsequently overruled by House Speaker Dr Barton Scotland.

Nandlall and former Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai had identified the issue as one of “national public importance”, and had asked that the matter be debated in Parliament.

Nandlall, a former Attorney General, said that he was deeply disappointed with the Speaker’s ruling, especially since he did not get an opportunity to present the petition.

“It is quite unfortunate that Parliament, which is a place for discussion – a forum where deliberation takes place; where freedom of speech is guaranteed to you, and you can virtually say anything without being sued for libel — is the institution that is restricting free speech,” he asserted.

Nandlall said matters of such importance should be debated in Parliament, to allow for a civil discussion, as people should not always have to resort to protests to have their concerns addressed. The PPP Member of Parliament has said it may not be practical to bring back the motion in Parliament, because the commission has been established and has a timeframe in which it has to complete its work.

The CoI was established on March 10, 2017 by President David Granger. However, the NTC has rejected Government’s decision to establish the CoI into land rights on two grounds: the lack of consultation, and that the two issues are unique and need to be addressed separately.