The installed Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai, MP, is facing calls for her suspension from the National Assembly for dishonesty. The Minister during her Thursday 3, February, 2022 Budget presentation allegedly made statements contravening parliamentary Standing Orders.
Sukhai during her address to the Parliament stated, “Another parked project was the Amerindian Land Titling Project, that project was parked. Mr Speaker, not a single land title was approved by the APNU+AFC Government, in five years sitting at the helm of Government, did not approve a single piece of land to be allocated as an extension for villages who have applied.”
That statement by the Minister has since been flagged as “dishonest” by Mervyn Williams a former Member of Parliament and Ministerial Adviser to, then, Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, Sydney Allicock. Williams in a letter to the Kaieteur News posited that the Minister has at her disposal, all of the records of the Amerindian Land Titling Project and cannot claim ignorance of its work and achievements.
He outlined that after six Upper Mazaruni Villages refused demarcation, the following six (6) villages with applications for demarcation were included in the Amerindian Land Titling Project (ALT) for the first time:
1. Chinoweing
2. Tuseneng
3. Micobie
4. Shea
5. Shulinab
6. St. Ignatius
“As of 2019, the requisite investigations with respect to Chinoweing, Shea, Shulinab and St. Ignatius were completed,” he said. These are now among villages that the Minister boasts will soon receive titles. The minister told the National Assembly that the APNU+AFC issued no titles. “I shall now set the record straight. Approval was granted for the following Villages to be titled:
1. Tassarene
2. Kangaruma/Assuria
3. Parabara
4. Rockstone
5. Mainstay (Extension)
6. Capoey (Extension)
7. Mashabo (Extension)
8. St. Monica (Extension)
9. Yupukari(Extension)
10. Katoonarib (Conditional approval)
Of those 10, five (5) Villages received Absolute Grants as follows:`Tasarene, Kangaruma/Assuria, Yupukari, St. Monica and Mainstay/Wayaka. The others were ripe for titling by the time the APNU+AFC demitted office. For some strange reason there is now no talk of Parabara in terms of land title. Could it be that Parabara is too rich in mineral resources and sits on too large an area of land?”, he questioned.
In another shocking revelation, Willams accused the Ramotar Government of giving ‘fake titles’, in 2012 to the Villages of Taserene, Kangaruma/Assuria. “They (PPPC) benefited from photo opportunities, after which the purported title documents were withdrawn. This was, however, corrected by President Granger, during his term in office.”
Williams said that any proper research will prove that the PNC, whether by itself or in Coalition with other partners, has always ensured that Indigenous Land Rights received proper attention. The Amerindian Lands Commission Act, the work of the Amerindian Lands Commission and the award of Absolute Grants to close to ninety Villages in 1976 and 1991 proves this beyond doubt.
More, In The Ring.
