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October 18 ,2020

Stabroeknews Editorial

While the squatters at Success were slowly being submerged under water and the police were firing pellet rounds, President Irfaan Ali was at the Providence Stadium in dream mode. He was attending the opening of a two-day exercise for the distribution of land titles called ‘Dream Realised’ held by the Ministry of Housing and Water.

Addressing himself to the squatters he said, “My brothers and sisters at Success… we want you to own your homes too; that is why we sent the housing team so many times to see you. We want to help you. We are going to move as fast as possible in this programme but I am appealing to Guyanese let us do it the right way.”

The right way, as it turns out, is not something that can be accomplished quickly. The President, himself a former Minister of Housing, assured the crowd at the National Stadium that there were at least four new housing developments which would soon be embarked on, and that applicants from 2016 and before would be given priority. However, the 50,000 house lots which he has promised to distribute over the next five years will be developed as part of hubs, in order to create areas of density which would be connected by a transportation network. “We cannot talk about sustainability in a housing programme if we cannot create areas of density,” he said. “Areas of density create demand. Demand creates jobs, it creates new growth poles, new towns.”

This vision is to be achieved through public-private partnerships. The President said the government was “bringing together the hardware stores, the banks, the builders, the contractors, the developers, to achieve economies of scale,” and that by granting these businesses a ready market pool of, say, 25 houses it reduced their marketing and operational costs. Both the original concept with the added complexity of public-private arrangements, mean that these projected housing schemes are not about to materialise in the very short term, even if the Success squatters occupying GuySuCo land were given priority treatment.

Their story, like so many others in this country, is one of government inaction and confusion. Most of them did not arrive on the land yesterday, but have been there for some time.  Opposition leader Joseph Harmon was quick to jump into the fray, but the truth of the matter is that when APNU+AFC was in government they did nothing about the squatters, despite the fact that they, like their predecessors, pronounced squatting unacceptable. They have now bequeathed the problem to the present administration, in a situation where GuySuCo wants to reclaim its land for cane-growing purposes.

As has happened several times before, quite a number of the squatters are refusing to move, and it is likely that many of them genuinely do not have anywhere else to go. While some of them have been offered land, the bottom line is that there are no developments with the infrastructure already in place where they could be sent right now.  Since they have been given nothing as an alternative, they are resisting eviction.

This newspaper spoke to Jagnarine, for example, who used to be a taxi driver, but became unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and was unable to pay the rent for his home any longer.  He said he had invested in his little house which he had built in May, after squatting in the area since March.  He had no other option, he said, and did not intend to move since he had already put money into his home.  “I never know cane so important to fight down the people so hard to cultivate cane,” he remarked. He was one of those who said he had applied for a house lot since 2003, and that nothing had happened.

Then there was Dalian, who told our reporter that before she started squatting she had been using her children’s child support money to pay the rent. Although it was intended for feeding the children, because of her very small income and unstable employment she could not afford the rent, and so what her child-father sent was diverted to ensure they had a roof over their heads.  Like several others we spoke to, she said she was not fighting for the GuySuCo land specifically, but for an allocation of land so she and her children could have a home. “I don’t want to fight the government,” she said.

For her part Abigail Baker accused GuySuCo of not approaching the squatters in the proper way, or giving them enough time, or offering a solution to the land issue. “I don’t mind giving up the land,” she said, “but where we gonna sleep tonight?” She then explained how the matter should have been approached: they should have given people notice, and if there were structures they should help to rebuild them because people’s money was involved.

The government flooded the land probably because they wanted to avoid scenes of the police tear-gassing mothers with small children. Flooding, however, is an equally dangerous tactic, if  more insidiously so, given the absence of adequate sanitation arrangements and the consequent danger of disease. It seems, however, that in any case the government did not confine itself to flooding. The squatters told Stabroek News that the police had opened fire on them without warning, and they insisted that despite the police statement about the attempted robbery on GuySuCo guards, no criminal activity had been involved. It was a matter, they said, of government excavators which were used to dig drainage for the water flooding the land being employed to break down their homes, and of them attempting to block them. It was then, they said, that the police discharged rounds of pellets at them. Some of them showed our reporter their injuries. One man named Carl said that the equipment from his house had been taken, because he was not there when the excavator demolished it.

The government has gone about this in the wrong way. The first thing they should have recognised is that there is a pandemic, and that more people are trying to eke out an existence below the breadline than is normally the case.

In addition, a lot of workers who were formerly employed are now jobless. They should have assumed, therefore, that a goodly proportion of the Success squatters may fall into one or another of these categories. Using excavators to destroy the few possessions of those, some of whom are already dispossessed, says nothing for the caring approach of the authorities.

Given the above, the second thing they should have taken into account is that a significant number of the squatters literally have nowhere else to go. Human considerations aside, it should have crossed their minds that the last thing they want politically speaking, would be news stories of single mothers with children, for example, living and begging on the streets.

Even if the government are prepared to offer house lots – and as indicated above they have said they are – they must have some temporary arrangements in place to accommodate these people in the meantime. In other words, you cannot move the squatters out unless you have somewhere to put them.   Ideally, that should not be somewhere temporary, but a piece of land. Even if the infrastructure is not quite ready as yet, work could be slated to start on it immediately and the Success people could still move there in the interim. Mr Harmon pointed to the example of Plastic City, where squatters were given assistance to move, and that should apply here too.

Even though this is not a problem of the current administration’s making, they are the ones who have to address it, and in doing that they cannot allow humanitarian concerns to be overwhelmed by agricultural demands.   

Replies sorted oldest to newest

@kp posted:

The PPP has done more for the country in TWO months than the PNC did in 5 years.

Yes, they have flooded and destroyed the homes of poor people.   And, they have shot those who protected their properties.  The PPP is cultist group of barbarians.

T
@Totaram posted:

Yes, they have flooded and destroyed the homes of poor people.   And, they have shot those who protected their properties.  The PPP is cultist group of barbarians.

The PPP inherited the squatters , the PNC did nothing to help them. The PPP is in process to provide them shelter. These were illegal occupiers that need to follow the law. They squatted in cane fields which need to be cultivated.

Their lives will be much better now.

GOOD TING PPP WON.

K
@kp posted:

The PPP inherited the squatters , the PNC did nothing to help them. The PPP is in process to provide them shelter. These were illegal occupiers that need to follow the law. They squatted in cane fields which need to be cultivated.

Their lives will be much better now.

GOOD TING PPP WON.

It was the PPP who encouraged them to squat.

Mitwah

Good going 10,000 people flooded out of abandoned Guysuco cane lands in Region 4 to save 7,000 severed sugar workers who received severance pay ,when the three estates ,one in Region 4 and two in Region 6 was shuttered ,three years ago.

Guysuco the heavily indebted company produces sugar at almost two and half times, the selling price depends on the government for billions of dollars bail outs.

Django
Last edited by Django
@kp posted:

Stop spreading lies ,10,000 squatters, Where?

They are Bums unemployed just looking to thief other people property.

Put them to cut cane in lieu of getting free house lot.

So it was said . Who are the "other people"  that owns the property ?

Django

Flooding the Success squatters reflects a lack of humanity—says MP

October 17, 2020

Source

MP Attorney at Law, Amanza Walton-Desir

The attack against the squatters aback of some Lower East Coast Demerara villages has shocked many. The disaffection has reached the stage where a member of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) opted to resign.
Member of Parliament, Attorney at Law, Amanza Walton-Desir, told the media that the attack against the squatters has transcended politics.
“The issue of the squatters and the situation is not a political issue. It is a human right and an issue of human dignity. Were we not so politically divided a country we could all agree it is an issue of human rights and dignity.”
The demographics of the squatters show that the affected people are not confined to one ethnic group.
“The actions of the government is callous. I look with much distress seeing mothers packing up their bundles and trekking out with thir children and having no idea of where they are going to go.” Ms Walton-Desir said that it is saddening to see some of the commentaries on social media. It would appear that people have lost their humanity.
“You can see in a pandemic that is gripping the world, you can see other countries making interventions. It is disheartening to see comments like ‘Why didn’t Granger give them land?’ or ‘Squatting is illegal’.
“To target a community by flooding where they live; and people with babies, where they live with children; this is no political issue.
“It is an issue of human rights; it is an issue of human dignity.”
To date no one has asked where these people can go or will go. Ms Walton-Desir said that for many, the squatting house they occupied was the only home they knew.
“A number of them have been put out because they cannot afford the rent because they don’t have their jobs due to the pandemic. I want to call on Guyanese, particularly those who are right-thinking to roundly condemn this action.”
The government claimed that it needs the land to resuscitate the sugar industry. However, a few months, while in Opposition, it was the government that sent people to squat on the land. This provoked a sympathy vote.
Django
Last edited by Django
@kp posted:

Stop spreading lies ,10,000 squatters, Where?  They are Bums unemployed just looking to thief other people property. Put them to cut cane in lieu of getting free house lot.

You are not fit to be a human being.

“To target a community by flooding where they live; and people with babies, where they live with children; this is no political issue.
“It is an issue of human rights; it is an issue of human dignity.”

Mitwah
@Mitwah posted:

You are not fit to be a human being.

“To target a community by flooding where they live; and people with babies, where they live with children; this is no political issue.
“It is an issue of human rights; it is an issue of human dignity.”

What does the PPP know about  human rights, or human dignity ? But Mustapha, as replaced RO, know about making Berbice another Singapore, while people continue to shit and piss by the roadside.

Tola
@kp posted:

The PPP inherited the squatters , the PNC did nothing to help them.

PNC left them alone, you would think dem big bad PNC woulda try an drown out dem po people but no, PPP orchestrated dah one.

cain
Last edited by cain

https://www.facebook.com/perma...p;id=101262384773951

Members of NICIL board have endorsed flooding out the residents of Success. Which they are well aware is an international violation.
Chairman, Mr. Paul Cheong
GUYSUCO CEO acting Mr. Sasenarine Singh
Attorney at Law Ms. Pauline Chase
Mr. Stanley Paul
Attorney at Law Mr. Christopher Ram
Mr. Nigel Hinds resigned in opposition to the flooding
“The practice of forced eviction constitutes a gross violation of human rights, in particular the right to adequate housing” (Commission on Human Rights, Resolution 1993/77)
Every year, millions of people around the world are forcibly evicted from their homes and their land, often leaving them living in extreme poverty and destitution. Forced evictions can be severely traumatic and set back even further the lives of those that are already marginalized or vulnerable in society. Moreover, forced evictions violate a wide range of internationally recognized human rights, including the rights to adequate housing, food, water, health, education, work, security of the person, freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and freedom of movement.
Django

One thing for sure about those in the PPP government.  They elevate themselves so high on their pedestals, that they have no perception what its like to be poor.

Mansions vs squatters' shacks.

Tola

Abhorrent gov’t behaviour at Success

October 19, 2020

Source

I, like many other Guyanese, are concerned about the actions taken by the government or governmental institutions in response to the occupation of “state” lands at Success. The actions of the government and its institutions have no place in this century. It is abhorrent that our government is allowed to perpetuate these actions on our own population.

If this was an internationally funded project, the project would have ceased immediately because of the social safeguards that donors have as operational policies in dealing with local populations. The international safeguards policies would have necessitated not only the humane relocation of the persons but that the government bears the costs of the relocations. The Sunday Stabroek editorial of 18th October 2020 details the social and economic hardships of some members of the communities. It is amazing that the government could not consider leveraging the services of other sections of the government to address some of the issues identified by these citizens. It also reeked of arrogance that whilst the government was flooding some of our citizens it held a campaign-style activity on housing (the gigantic portraits of the president and ministers that adorned the event will be the subject of another letter).

National social safeguard policies for projects and activities in Guyana are urgently needed and the situation in Success is one of many that demonstrate the need.

Yours faithfully,

(Name and address supplied)

Django
@Totaram posted:

Yes, they have flooded and destroyed the homes of poor people.   And, they have shot those who protected their properties.  The PPP is cultist group of barbarians.

It is the black Police who did those things.  The Region#4 Government of the PNC is responsible.  Don't blame the PPP for your crazy behavior.

Next you will want to blame Donald Trump, a great man, for making it possible for Granger to eat his own shyte.

R
Last edited by Ramakant-P
@Ramakant-P posted:

It is the black Police who did those things.  The Region#4 Government of the PNC is responsible.  Don't blame the PPP for your crazy behavior.

Next you will want to blame Donald Trump, a great man, for making it possible for Granger to eat his own shyte.

This is such an asinine statement.

Mitwah
@Tola posted:

What does the PPP know about  human rights, or human dignity ? But Mustapha, as replaced RO, know about making Berbice another Singapore, while people continue to shit and piss by the roadside.

That's what I am saying about the PNC.  What do they know about human dignity and what do they know about running a country?

R

It is unimaginable that a government will allow this type of abuse to take place against its poor.  But the PPP has a track record of getting ordinary citizens to vote for them and then ignoring them afterwards.

Tola
@Tola posted:

It is unimaginable that a government will allow this type of abuse to take place against its poor.  But the PPP has a track record of getting ordinary citizens to vote for them and then ignoring them afterwards.

What abuse are you talking about? These people have their own homes and were misguided by the AFC cabals. They squatted for no reason at all.  The PNC Regional Government, not the PPP Central government that is responsible for the lands. You are so dogmatic that you continue to blame the PPP for the PNC's fault.

R
@Ramakant-P posted:

What abuse are you talking about? These people have their own homes and were misguided by the AFC cabals. They squatted for no reason at all.  The PNC Regional Government, not the PPP Central government that is responsible for the lands. You are so dogmatic that you continue to blame the PPP for the PNC's fault.

The people were misguided alright, by the PPP who told them to squat.

Tola
@Tola posted:

The people were misguided alright, by the PPP who told them to squat.

How do you know that the PPP told them to squat?

The AFC has been having secret meetings with them. These people are not poor. They all have their homes.

R

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