APNU and AFC cuts to Budget not in interest of the Amerindian Development

The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs wishes to express its discomfort with the callous actions of the Opposition parties –the APNU and AFC on their proposed $26B cuts in the 2012 National Budget.

These recklessly uninformed, albeit, deliberate cuts will drastically affect the development of the country’s Amerindian population. The Ministry decries this act as it does not serve in the best interest of the more than 70,000 Amerindians who are mostly living in the remote areas across our hinterland and including in the coastal regions of our country.

The Ministry finds it completely incomprehensible that the APNU/AFC has approved to cut all of the LCDS projects from the Budget. These include the very fundamental support for the socio-economic development of Amerindian Communities- Land Titling and demarcation, solar electrification, and the implementation of Community Development plans and institutional strengthening of Villages, among others.

These programmatic interventions are expected to facilitate the socio-economic transformation of more than 186 Amerindian Villages and settlements, facilitate the creation of hundreds of jobs and foster wealth creation. The proposed cuts for programmes under the Low Carbon Development Strategy demonstrate gross disrespect to the Amerindians who are anxiously awaiting the funds to implement projects which were designed by the communities through their free, prior and informed consent.

The Opposition’s usual clamour about Amerindian rights to land, provision of jobs in Amerindian Communities and food security for our people is really farcical. How can they speak of titling and demarcation of Amerindian Lands if they are not in support of projects under the LCDS that will give our Amerindians tenure to their lands? Likewise, how can they speak of Amerindian development if they will remove funds made available for the implementation of economic livelihood projects in these remote communities?

These acts, as promulgated by the Opposition Parties, show evidentially that the likes of George Norton, Dawn Hastings, Sidney Allicock, Valerie Garrido-Lowe and Joan Marcello, without a doubt, tricked our Amerindian brothers and sisters to vote for the APNU and the AFC. As far as we are aware, the Opposition Parties campaigned in Amerindian Communities with promises to support Amerindian development. One can now deduce that the actions of the APNU/AFC are at least hypocritical. Their campaign promises were designed to fool and manipulate the emotions of our Amerindian population. It was more or less an act to garner votes but at the willful expense of our Amerindians.

We wish to make very clear that such preposterous actions by the combined Opposition are a violation of one’s rights to equal opportunities. The Opposition parties speak of political transformation and maturity in our country, but their posturing is a vivid reminder that their agenda is still more important than amerindian development. These un-thought-of cuts are designed to stagnate and stultify growth and development of our Amerindian people and their communities.

The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs will not sit idly and allow the Opposition Parties to trample on and treat Amerindians in this most whimsical manner. We demand that our people be treated with dignity and respect and be allowed to be part of the mainstream of development activities in our country. For far too long Amerindians have been neglected and cast aside under the ruler-ship of the Opposition.

As a result of the PPP/C’s prudent and democratic management of the economy, we can afford as a country to implement these programmes that will bring benefit to a once neglected group and promote national development. We call on the Opposition Parties to re -think their most untenable position and put our country and its people first so that we can continue to work towards a better Guyana for all.