It seems that after AFC did not approve the Ministry Of Amerindian Affairs capital budget this year the two AFC indigenous Parliamentarians, MP Eula Marcello and I, are being singled out for unfair and embarrassing treatment, I am sure, meant to put us in our places.
On Saturday May 10, 2014, on an invitation from the Regional Chairman, Mr. Mark Crawford I travelled up to Mahdia via bus with the understanding that I will be attending the two-day RDC meeting being held at Kato on Monday, May 12th and 13th. I was supposed to board the RDC’s Chartered aircraft on Sunday, May 11th from Mahdia to Kato.
When I arrived at Mahdia on Saturday afternoon councilor Gafoor and I went to check with the Air Services flight representative and we were told that my name was scratched off the list by the REO, Mr. Ronald Harsaywak, and only the seven Regional Councillors will be traveling to Kato. He further explained that they will be taking up a drum of fuel and 250 pounds of fresh meat so they did not have space.
However, I had learned previously that three of our councilors were unable to travel to Kato at that time so I advised the Air Services representative of this new development and posited to him that I can now travel since space did not seem to be the problem anymore. The Air Services flight representative was pleased to tell me that he had strict instructions from the REO not to allow anyone else on the plane.
On Sunday morning, which was Mothers Day, I went to the airstrip to inquire further from another Air Services representative, if I could board the plane to Kato with the four councilors who were traveling. He also told me that his list had the names of the seven councilors on it and although three of them were not traveling, he too had strict instructions not to let anyone else board that flight and there was nothing he could about it. I daresay it was not long before everyone in Mahdia and Campbelltown heard
that MP Garrido-Lowe got “put off” the plane.
For all who travel in the hinterland, it is a known fact that aircrafts do not hesitate to carry passengers from the various hinterland locations to destinations the aircrafts themselves are bound for. In fact, I would think that they have a duty, providing they have the space, to assist anyone who is sick, or who needs to travel to another village since transportation is a major problem in the hinterland.
I was not a patient but I am a Parliamentarian and as an indigenous Parliamentarian I have a special interest in the welfare of my fellow indigenous brothers and sisters. The issues that are of great concern to the people of the Pakaraimas would have been highlighted at the Region 8 RDC since the Toshaos from all, or almost all of the villages of Region 8, would have attended this meeting, hence my reason for being present. I would have heard, first hand, about these issues and would have been able to make the necessary representations to the relevant Ministers and also in Parliament on their behalf.
Instead, I was obviously discriminated against because I am an Alliance For Change Parliamentarian; I feel victimized and consider the whole situation one of political sabotage.
I am, therefore, calling on the Minister of Local Government, the Hon. Norman Whittaker and Minister of Amerindian Affairs, the Hon. Pauline Sukhai, to look into this matter with the aim of putting a stop to such crude and disrespectful behaviour patterns toward indigenous MPs of the Opposition. My occupying a vacant seat on the flight to Kato on Mother’s Day would not have cost the Region a dollar more since it was a chartered flight, paid for by the Region Eight RDC.
Apparently, as indigenous Parliamentarians we were supposed to vote for everything on the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs budget whether it made sense or not. Unfortunately, if we had done that we would have been party to millions of dollars being spent on a dubious programme that does nothing to empower the Amerindian youth. Personally, I refuse to be party to wasteful spending of hard-earned Guyanese monies.
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