Statement: Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Hon. Pauline Sukhai M.P

The Amerindian People’s Association (APA) is callously and deliberately diverting attention from the ongoing, substantive consultations and solution-oriented dialogue between Amerindian leaders and the Government at the National Toshaos Committee (NTC) Conference, consumed as they are by an obsessive determination to deny Amerindians the very opportunities for development and participation in the transformative agenda that is available to all Guyanese.

In doing so, the APA seem intent on sabotaging the progress and unity that is being forged at this crucial gathering, preferring instead to engage in a self-serving campaign of misrepresentation and distortion.

In a brazen attempt to discredit the NTC conference, the APA has stooped to mischaracterising the comments of His Excellency President Dr Irfaan Ali, who in no way, shape, or form denied the historical role that the APA may have played in previous NTC conferences.

This desperate act of distortion reveals the APA’s self-destructive path, as they wilfully ignore the undeniable fact that the NTC conference over the past days has provided invaluable opportunities for Amerindian leaders to come together, to engage in meaningful discussions, to address the pressing issues facing their communities, and to find real solutions through direct engagement with Government Ministers, Ministries, and Departments.

Yet, the APA, now reduced to the machinations of a politically hijacked group pandering to opposition figures like Laura George, the spokesperson for the AFC, has chosen to tarnish this opportunity in favour of advancing their own narrow and politically motivated agenda.

It is nothing short of hypocrisy for the APA, which claims to champion the cause of Amerindians, to boast a track record that is, in reality, stellar only in its ability to deny our first peoples the right to access funding critical for the development of their villages.

Despite the historic allocation of $4.7 billion in 2023 from the sale of carbon credits—representing the single largest financial injection into Amerindian communities ever—the APA continues to oppose and obstruct, even as this year’s allocation has increased by 26.5% and those funds are being disbursed to uplift the very communities they purport to love.

The APA has a sordid record of denying Amerindians access to funding, joining with opposition elements to block the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and ART-TREES initiatives.

Despite being asked to join other stakeholders on the LCDS Communications Sub-Committee, the APA failed to attend meetings, did not participate, and neglected—despite being requested—to provide solutions to challenges such as identifying translators fluent in local languages, leaving this crucial work to others while they remained conspicuously absent.

Unlike their peers who fulfilled their responsibilites, gathering inputs and feedback from communities, the APA shirked their duty, and after the consultations were completed, it was discovered that hundreds of copies of the LCDS, which had been entrusted to the APA for distribution and consultation, were languishing in their headquarters in the city.

The truth is glaring. The APA is solely concerned with positioning itself in a self-appointed, self-righteous role that allows them to attract donor financing by manufacturing a crisis, by creating a narrative of need that justifies their continued existence.

Notwithstanding, the APA has little to show at the village level for the donor funds it has received as Indigenous communities have repeatedly voiced concerns that only a fraction of this aid reaches them, with the vast majority allegedly going towards extravagant expenses such as charter flights, luxury hotel accommodations, and inflated salaries for APA officials.

Guyana’s first peoples deserve better than the empty patronizing that comes from the farcical interloping agenda of the APA, as was their excruciating experience under the coalition government.

Conversely, they have been seeing, feeling and experiencing real changes, tangible empowerment, and a level of citizenship in our One Guyana through the dedicated and consistent intervention of consecutive PPP/C governments since 1992, as the facts and evidence show.

Our commitment and resolve to work indefatigably in the cause of upliftment for our Amerindian brothers and sisters, remains iron clad.