The MMA is not moving to take away state lands at Cotton Tree from the residents

In response to a totally inaccurate and grossly misleading article headed ‘Cotton Tree Residents battling MMA over titled lands‘ published in the Thursday, December 6 edition of the Kaieteur News, the MMA herein issues the following statement:

There is absolutely no truth whatsoever that the MMA or government is moving to ‘take away’ the state lands at Cotton Tree from the residents there. That will never happen.

Instead, there is an ongoing process which started in 2005 upon their request, to ‘divide up’ the lands and award them their individual titles. The original title (now cancelled) – Licence of Occupancy A105 -covering 1753 acres was issued in 1905 to the then proprietors of Cotton Tree.

Not unexpectedly, after 100 years, things have changed; the village population has grown and everyone wants to have a piece of the state land.

There was therefore the need to treat with their request for regularization.

So far, we have held a number of meetings in the village conducting investigations and gathering   information. This is very necessary for the transparency and fairness that is required.

Some aspects of the information sought included the following:

(a) Claims to entitlement – inheritance from foreparents, etc
(b)  Ownership of freehold (transported) lands at the front
(c)  Domicile history of claimants
(d)  Current and historical occupation and control of state lands
(e)  Speculation – sales and purchases – of the transported and state lands
(f) Needs – family size, source of income, etc.

During our interactions, we found some situations that concerned us gravely. For instance, we received representation of ownership for over 168 plots in the rice area and another 85 plots in the reef area.  However, only 27 persons controlled and cultivated all the lands with one farmer alone cultivating over 500 acres; another rented out over 230 acres.

Many of the purported owners had migrated but continued to exercise control over the state lands from overseas, having their agents renting them out to other farmers in the area.

A large number of plots had changed occupation by informal sale. Some of these transactions are done overseas. We even heard of situations where the son would sell while the father is overseas, who upon return would deem the sale illegal, and demand back the land without giving back the buyer any money. Any resistance from the buyer is threatened with court action.

Many other similar situations were brought to our attention which we believe were sufficient to justify our decision to have the situation regularized.

During all of this too the drainage and irrigation charges were not being paid. As a result we initiated the process to recover these charges. This process is the same as for all the other areas within the MMA and, as has been well publicized for some years now, the continued refusal to pay drainage and irrigation charges leads to re-possession and re-allocation of state lands.

As in 2008, we have been publishing notices for some months now. Many persons have responded and yet some have not. We take this opportunity to again warn those defaulters.

This is the real problem of Mansoor Khan, who is featured in the Kaieteur News article We first published his drainage and irrigation indebtedness during the re-possession/re-allocation exercise of 2008.  He owed three hundred and five thousand, one hundred and eighteen dollars ($305,118.00) then.  He refused to pay although the lands were cultivated by people who were paying him a rent.  Instead he filed suit in court against us. His case was “struck out as being wholly misconceived” in a ruling by Madam Justice George on May 21, 2009. Notwithstanding this he still has not paid anything as of date.

Currently his account stands at $428,518.00 as at June 30, 2012, and we have already received expressions of interest from other persons of Cotton Tree to be allocated the state lands that he controls. Mr Khan has had previous difficulties with the MMA in relation to land and payment issues.

So in summary, the issue is not, and has never been the taking away of the lands from the people of Cotton Tree. As we continue to move the process forward, however, it is our responsibility to ensure a fair and equitable process of allocation to them. Presently, we will be doing some surveys and we will be holding the next set of meetings with them.

It is our hope that all the residents and descendants of the proprietors of Cotton Tree will be given a title to or an interest in the state lands there as we guard against only a few persons, some of whom don’t even live in Guyana, being the only ones to benefit as is happening now.

Source  http://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/opinion/letters/12/08/the-mma-is-not-moving-to-take-away-state-lands-at-cotton-tree-from-the-residents/

Chris Brown Guyana Show Canceled After Protests Over His 2009 Assault Of Rihanna

Organizers say American R&B star Chris Brown has canceled a stadium concert in Guyana after local protests over his 2009 beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna.

Brown was billed to headline a Dec. 26 show. But he drew the ire of women's rights groups and opposition lawmakers who said Brown would not be welcome in Guyana three years after his assault of Barbadian superstar Rihanna.

Concert promoter Hits & Jams Entertainment said Thursday that Brown backed out, citing discomfort with the protests.

In 2009, Brown hit, choked and bit Rihanna during an argument in Los Angeles. He later pleaded guilty to assault.

Since then, Brown has worked to repair his image, undergoing violence counseling and putting out a new album. He has a duet with Rihanna on her recently released record.

Source  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/22/chris-brown-guyana-show-canceled-rihanna_n_2175649.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment

NLC scam and accountability process

While corruption and non-conformity of the societal order is an outcome of bad governance and non-functioning of government institutions, it leaves enough space for some crafty opportunists to amass large fortunes. Advanced democracies like the UK, US, Canada and Australia have strong media and criminal justice systems to combat corruption. But the developing world’s political and civil institutions are weaker, and in effect license corruption with impunity. However, as a part of the ongoing cleansing drive initiated by the electronic media to unearth unholy doings in the civil society, even some high ranking officials of Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force are being tried and cases have been made public through the media.

The vibrant media has unveiled many major scams such as Pakistan Steel Mill’s Rs22 billion scam, NICL case, corruption in Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Railways, Haj corruption case, Nato containers’ case, rental power projects and the ephedrine quota case.

More recently, a stage is set against Major General Khalid Zaheer Akhtar, Lt. General Khalid Munir and Lt. General Afzal Muzzafar for their involvement in the National Logistics Cell (NLC) scandal. Better late, then never. Pakistan military has been already censured by the media on the dilly-dallying tactics adopted in the fulfilment of justice.

The initial reluctant response by the echelons of military’s accountability process can only be diluted, if military castigates this culture of impunity and restore its high-esteemed image in the eyes of the general public. It goes to the army’s credit that instead of hushing up the scandal, it ordered investigations and recording of the Summary of Evidence (SoE) that is the preliminary step in requisitioning a court martial.

All the three general officers are facing court-martial after being recalled into service. The GHQ is evaluating the evidence and experts are being consulted in the investigation of the record of the case.

Recalling the previous happening of the multi-billion-rupee National Logistics Cell (NLC) scam, it was the audit of accounts of the NLC, a subsidiary of Planning Commission that unearthed the mega scam. Established in August 1978, the NLC is an organisation involved in infrastructure development, provision of freight services, management of border terminals and strategic inland dry ports, manufacturing and engineering excellence, and enhancing energy resources.

The audit department had reported to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the NLC had obtained Rs4.3 billion in loans from banks between 2004 and 2008 for investment in volatile stock exchange market “by purchasing shares of different enlisted companies/institutions, violating the NLC’s Board of Directors (BoD) instructions” and suffered Rs1.84 billion losses. However, due to implementation of sagacious reforms, the NLC returned approximately Rs9.3 billion in loans in 2011 and showed a net profit of Rs3 billion.

But, this does not exonerate the incumbents from the financial irregularities and failure in observing the rule and regulations of the institution. The Board of Inquiry (BOI) was held by the Planning Commission and the recommendations were subsequently referred to the General Headquarters (GHQ) on September 20, 2010. The recording of four Summaries of Evidence (SoE) delayed the accountability process and the Army could not submit the inquiry report of the National Logistic Cell (NLC) scam by the deadline of June 30 given by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Now, the Judge Advocate General of Pakistan Army is preparing the case for the court martial and consulting judicial experts. The credibility of the evidence gathered through the SoE will determine the next course of action by the Army.

The accused in the NLC scam are both military officers and civilians, and are to be tried separately under military and civil criminal laws. It is hoped that the accused in this trial should get full justice. The trial should not be either an eye-wash nor should be used as mean to divert the on-going media purification drive from the corrupt and mismanagement policies of current government.

More importantly, this unprecedented trial in the annals of Pakistan military history should not be an end in itself but a never ending continuation of cleansing process.

Source  http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-17880-NLC-scam-and-accountability-process

Career variety proves the spice of life for Guyanese immigrant Maurice Braithwaite

Maurice Braithwaite doesn’t like to talk about himself, but boy, does he tell great stories, many of which tell a lot about the storyteller.

Like this one, about growing up in a Georgetown, Guyana, tenement yard — a low end housing project — with an aunt who had 24 children — yep, 24 — yet took the then 13-year-old Braithwaite and his four siblings in after their father died.

“This house didn’t have any furniture,” the 71-year-old recalled. “Our bed was the floor. But for us young kids, it was very exciting.

“They used to call that particular tenement yard a stable yard, because the undertaker in those days had horse drawn carriages, and he used to keep his vehicle right under the house where we lived, because in Guyana all the houses were on stilts. When it rained the place would flood.”

Braithwaite’s twinkling eyes match his laugh as he’s telling this story, and it’s unclear if the engineer, the actor, the orator or the community activist in him gets the bigger tickle out of telling it.

“When people ask me how my acting career got started I said growing up in the stable yard,” he said. “It was a conglomerate of people who lived there; Chinese, Portuguese, African, East Indian, Amerindians, everyone. On the weekend, it was chaos. Once you come out of that place, if you aspired to be an actor, you got it all.”

It was from that muddy beginning that Braithwaite would go on to earn a electrical technology certificate from Guyana Technical Institute in 1966, then teach mechanical drawing, math and electrical lab there for two years

After immigrating to New York in 1971 Braithwaite earned a diploma in electrical circuits and systems from RCA Institute of Technology and a bachelors degree in electromechanical engineering from the City College of New York — he went to school at night, six days a week, for four years while working a full-time job at a Brooklyn electronic plant.

From 1977 until his 2005 retirement Braithwaite worked for Xerox, rising to customer service field manager for a staff of 30.

Inspired at 10 years old by an uncle who worked the Georgetown ‘vaudeville’ circuit, Braithwaite dabbled and then jumped into the Guyanese theatre, at first using his electrical training to light and design sets.
Eventually he moved to the stage — Braithwaite was the voice of Mentor in a hit radio serial about the fictional town of Susanberg, and worked on productions with the Guyana Theater Guild and another group, the Forum of Dramatic Aces.

Braithwaite and longtime friend and writer Francis Farrier started the theater group, Dramatic Core. The company toured the country, even visiting hard to reach gold and diamond mining camps in the unsettled interior.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/career-variety-proves-spice-life-guyanese-immigrant-maurice-braithwaite-article-1.1127387#ixzz22wyPkXnT

President calls APNU’s attack on Housing Ministry “Vicious”

President Donald Ramotar has lash out at A Partnership for National Unity's attack against the staff at the Ministry of Housing and the work carried out by the Ministry in ensuring that every Guyanese own a home.

The Guyanese Head of State addressing the opening of 3rd International Building Expo being hosted by the Housing Ministry at the Guyana National Stadium this evening said the work of his Government, especially the housing sector speaks for itself.

President Ramotar described the attacks on the Ministry as vicious, which he said seeks to derail the hard and tireless efforts of the staff at the housing ministry.

Making reference to the G $20.9B slashed from the 2012 National Budget by the opposition parliamentary party the president noted that such callousness is an abuse to the working class of the country.

He warned that his government will not stand idly by and allow the opposition to taint development with corruption. The Preisdent notes that since the PPP/C government took office the Ministry of Housing was reinvigorated with energy with the aim of ensuring that citizens won their own home.

Government remains steadfast ensuring that the targeted 30,000 hosuelots are distributed within the next five years. The construction sector has contributed significantly to the country's gross domestic product the president said.

He reiterated that his government will continue to meet the needs of citizens hence improving their living standards despite the efforts by detractors to derail Guyana’s progress.

Source http://ncnguyana.com/ncngy/index.php/local/local-news/social-issues/3854-president-calls-apnus-attack-on-housing-ministry-vicious

The real legacy of the Jagdeo presidency

A few days ago I came across an article on CSME Network News, an online news resource that describes itself as compiling “the latest in political and business news from CARICOM member states.” The article in question, titled ‘Jagdeo says Guyana will have first dibs on his service after retirement,‘ had been taken from a Demerara Waves report on President Jagdeo’s press conference last week. It raised two significant issues that all Guyanese should bear in mind – at home and in the diaspora where political parties have already come looking for campaign funds in this election season.

The first relates to the President’s response to a question about his plans after the forthcoming national elections, where he apparently “said he has had a ‘huge‘ number of offers to work abroad and he is still to determine how he will relate to them because some of them are ‘quite lucrative.‘”

This is quite a remarkable disclosure. One wonders what a “lucrative” offer looks like next to the golden handshake that pensioner Jagdeo will receive from Guyanese.

One thing we know for sure is that unlike the vast majority of Guyanese pensioners who currently receive $7,500/month, President Jagdeo will not be going hand to mouth while he makes a decision about which of these “lucrative” offers he will take. Unlike other Guyanese pensioners, many of whom in the twilight of their lives are reduced to begging or scraping a living from whatever job they can find, 48-year-old pensioner Jagdeo can choose to take another paid job, for he does not have to lift a finger for the rest of his life. Literally, for he will have an unlimited supply of maids, security guards, gardeners, attendants, clerical and technical staff to do all this for him. The same legislators who have told Guyanese pensioners to make do with $250.00 a day because this is what the country can afford, are the ones who have guaranteed that President Jagdeo will enjoy the most vulgar and obscene pension entitlements that we have ever seen in this country. The head of the Presidential Secretariat would have us believe that this is a most reasonable arrangement, despite the fact that the Minister of Finance cannot tell the Guyanese taxpayers what the cost of footing this bill will be, since the Act that brought this legislation into existence does not put any limits on these entitlements. We know this makes no financial sense, so we need to ask ourselves what else is going on here, and whose interests is all this supposed to serve? The sky’s the limit, but only for this one soon to be pensioner.

At the press conference, the President was reported to clearly express his undying patriotism, and to say that “anything I can do to advance our wellbeing as a country, that’s a priority for me.” Perhaps he should let us know equally clearly if, after he takes one of these so-called “lucrative” offers, he intends to keep squatting on the massive golden egg that is the Guyanese taxpayers who have to bear the unconscionable burden of footing his pension bill. With election date announced yesterday, it is time for all those campaigning for Guyanese support – votes and campaign donations – to ask all political parties and candidates some questions. Given that President Jagdeo promised that “Guyana will always have first call on his time,” should the PPP win the election and Jagdeo return to public office (as PPP presidential candidate Donald Ramotar has publicly mused in the past), will the party guarantee right now that he will be required to give up his pension, like former heads are required to do in other Caribbean countries? More crucially, which of the parties will categorically agree that Guyana’s current provisions for presidential pensions (under which Jagdeo will be the first recipient at age 48), are a complete and utter eyepass to Guyanese taxpayers, and which of the parties will commit to revising this vulgar legislation?

The second issue relates to President Jagdeo’s reported comment that “It’s important that we are competitive with each other as elections should be, people should criticize each other. I think we’re fair game for criticism because we’ve been in government for a while and we haven’t been perfect but we believe our record is good compared to the other people we are contesting against.”

This is also a most remarkable statement, in light of the President shutting down CNS TV Channel Six for four months, effectively ensuring that they are off the air for the duration of the elections. As newspaper editorials and commentators to the media and on the streets at the public meetings have pointed out, this is not a matter of either defending the content of the programme that allegedly precipitated this decision, or defending Mr Sharma personally. Channel Six is already before the courts since Bishop Juan Edghill brought a motion against Anthony Vieira and C N Sharma.

At issue is the high-handedness of this decision, and its timing. Bishop Edghill’s motion was filed since May of this year, but the President has waited for close to five months, and on the eve of the elections, to take Channel Six off the air. Whose interests does this serve? The President declares that criticism is healthy for a functioning democracy and that his government is fair game, but if he is confident that his party will win the forthcoming elections on the basis of popularity and loyalty, why are he and his government trying so hard to ensure that they sew up the media so that only their views will be heard? The state media is unequivocally and unapologetically unrepresentative, serving as little more than an outlet for PPP propaganda. Communities like Linden are given no choice beyond NCN Linden. The Stabroek News editorial of Sunday October 9 noted that Channel Six has a dedicated following in communities that are considered the stronghold and property of the PPP, (this should not be underestimated as a major factor in the 4 month suspension handed to the station). It is worth repeating what the editorial points out, that “since at the moment there is no indication that the state media intend to provide equal access to the opposition, it means that Freedom House is attempting to ensure that the public hears only PPP voices.”

What we have then, is lipservice being given to the value of criticism, while in reality only unquestioning obedience to and uncritical support of this administration will do. The way it seems we are expected to get things done today is by grovelling and by fear; a common pattern, reflected even in the meeting that led to the 4 month suspension, is the seeking out of personal audiences with the President who grants favours that should be entitlements and takes them away because he can. This is the stuff these days of an executive presidency. This is the difference that the PPP promised 19 years after they came to power? What difference? There is a word for this presidential behaviour, hubris, which means excessive arrogance, especially when the one who is behaving in this obscene way occupies a position of great authority.

On September 16 a lavish appreciation ceremony was held for President Jagdeo at the National Stadium. And while organizers were quick to claim that this was all volunteer labour, state resources were heavily drawn on to bring off the event, from the participation of the armed forces to the extensive coverage of the state owned media. I am sure that for many it felt like déjà vu, reminding us of those ceremonial and public displays of loyalty to President Burnham. In the press conference last week President Jagdeo reportedly stated that “the people who live here are my people.” He may have wanted to communicate that he was of the people, a sufferer with the people, but it is hard not to read the use of the word “my” in another way, one that emphasizes who is really in control, and is prepared to exercise executive power to maintain that control. ‘My people’:

because I am on top and they belong to me. It’s hard not to see this when we look at the lavish farewell ceremony in which the state media make every effort in their coverage to show grateful people thanking ‘massa’; or when we consider the farewell presidential pension package the likes of which the country has never seen and that ‘my people’ will be paying for; or when we think of the decision to shut down criticism because only my people, who must be yes-people, will be allowed to speak.

There is a famous children’s story that my daughter recently performed on stage about the emperor who strutted about naked in front of “his” people because no-one dared to tell him that he was not wearing a new suit of clothes. It took one child to insist to the pompous emperor that he had nothing on. An online definition of hubris suggests that the over-confidence in one’s authority comes from having lost touch with reality. As we enter this election season, and long after the dust settles on it, we need to stand up, to become that child who speaks back to the emperor because she can, and because she must understand that she is the reality that cannot and will not be ignored, the reality that needs to be reckoned with.

Source http://www.stabroeknews.com/2011/features/in-the-diaspora/10/10/arrogance-and-power-the-real-legacy-of-the-jagdeo-presidency/

Guyana to register thousands of new voters

Guyana's Parliament has agreed to let the country's elections commission reopen the voter registration process to include thousands of voters without birth certificates.

The decision comes in advance of general elections scheduled for December.

An estimated 6,000 to 10,000 voters in the South American country do not have birth certificates. The majority live in a remote northwest region near the border with Venezuela.

Opposition legislator Khemraj Ramjattan says Thursday's vote is nothing more than a ploy to help President Bharrat Jagdeo delay the elections and extend his time in power.

The ruling People's Progressive Party is seeking its fifth consecutive five-year term. The constitution prohibits Jagdeo from seeking a third term.

Source http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1660582