The fifth conference of the National Toshaos Council opened in Georgetown with a commitment by government officials that progress will continue for this group of people, as is their right. Themed “Consolidating and expanding frontiers for Amerindian development”, the meeting runs until Friday, July 29, and gives indigenous leaders an opportunity to interact with the president, Cabinet members and heads of all relevant state agencies.
A section of the audience at the opening of the NTC conference
Speaking on the progress Amerindians have made in recent years, subject minister Pauline Sukhai stated that the annual meeting has had positive impacts on hinterland communities, as they “transition into a more progressive state”. “Guyana’s Amerindian population has witnessed frontier expansion without dispute,” the minister declared.
She cited the expansion of land ownership and social services available at the regional and local village level, among others things, as evidence of development.
In her remarks, NTC Chairperson Yvonne Pearson encouraged her fellow toshaos to take full advantage of the conference, which was introduced five years ago.
“We have to use every opportunity, because it’s not every day we’re afforded to come to the city to have discussions, to have talks, dialogue and interact with His Excellency, ministers and other heads of state institutions,” she said. Pearson finds it disturbing that, despite the many benefits of such an interaction for Amerindians, some have been trying to derail the process, calling for a boycott and labelling the toshaos as tools of the PPP/C administration.
Development
“If we are faithful subjects, we are faithful subjects to our people back home, our people who elected us; and (if) we are tools, we are tools for the development of our people,” she declared. Her statement was met with applause from the audience.
“Why would we want to boycott this conference? Why would we want to stay away from this conference, when this is a platform for us to bring those things that are affecting us?” Pearson, the toshao of Mainstay/Whyaka community in Region Two, urged her colleagues to see such comments in a positive light. She noted that Amerindians have come a long way from an era of discrimination and marginalisation. “Today, we have the opportunity to speak – we have the opportunity to represent our various villages, our people back home.
In support of the comments made by the head of the National Toshaos Council, President Jagdeo said he believes that those asking the toshaos to boycott the conference have come from a different period, when Amerindians were not given the opportunity to speak for themselves. The president added thus: “Amerindian people have a voice today, a very loud voice in our country and in policymaking in Guyana”. He said there is a furore over the NTC meeting only because this is an election year.
“They were never worried about the past four meetings and about your concerns then, or whether you had been used then; but suddenly this year, the same conference, the same type of issues that we are going to be addressing, and they are worried about you being used,” Jagdeo explained, concluding that: “It’s always crazy when it gets to elections year.” Today, Jagdeo pointed out, the Amerindians have become a part of Guyana, so much so that the person who represents Guyana at all international fora is an Amerindian in the person of Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s first female foreign minister.
Model track record
According to the outgoing president, Guyana has a model track record as it relates to the treatment of indigenous peoples, and the progressive plan executed by his administration will continue despite his departure from office later this year.
“Although I’m departing, I know that this agenda will continue. It’s not a Jagdeo agenda, it is an agenda of the party that I come from – an agenda that from the very beginning sought to treat all of our peoples as equals,” the president said. He is ready to listen to the concerns of the 172 community leaders over the next four days. “We will settle on how the state can be supportive of your efforts as you try to improve the lives of people in your community — our people who live in sometimes very difficult circumstances but who have now become known for their resilience, their sense of purpose, and their never-ending optimism.”
“We have had a tough track record, and I want to say to you that our ability to spend in Guyana, our ability to spend in the Amerindian communities to fix the problems that we all face – whether (they are) access problems or health and education – that ability flows directly from a sound economic policy,” he explained. “If the country doesn’t produce wealth, it cannot distribute wealth.”
