Who did Mr Peter Persaud really represent?

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56521897

Who did Mr Peter Persaud really represent?
Stabroek News, Thursday, June 7th 2007

Dear Editor,

I refer to a letter captioned, "These groups are wrong to call on
Barama to cease operations in Akawini village lands" (07.05.28) by
Peter Persaud of The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana.

First of all the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) and the Guyanese
Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) are not surprised that Mr.
Persaud did not have the guts to personally confront the two
organisations with his opinions when he had ample opportunities to do
so. He is only following his modus operandi of seeking to cast blame on
others while trying to make himself look good. An opportunity for Mr.
Persaud to clear the air had presented itself when two senior members
of the APA had asked him about his alleged connections with the Barama
Co. based on questions that arose from among the Akawini community
about what appeared to be his representation of the company and not the
community's interest in the Barama issue. He had denied any connections
with the company.

In his earlier meetings with the team that met with the Akawini
community, Mr. Persaud had claimed that he was the "indigenous
representative" in the discussions even though it is not clear who had
appointed him as such a representative.

There was another opportunity for Mr. Persaud to state his opinions
when he travelled for two days in the company of two senior members of
the APA and GOIP on the recent Barama-led tour of its operations in
Buckhall and to the Akawini village. All along none of the two persons
knew that Mr. Persaud harboured such opinions of the organizations and
that a letter was already in the press. Nonetheless his position is not
difficult to understand as it was clear during the trip that he was
very familiar with the Barama officials and vice versa. We cannot say
the same for his closeness with the Akawini council which he claims to
represent and wonder what it took for him to finally clear the air on
where his allegiances lie. We trust that the wider indigenous community
takes note of this.

Just to clarify for Mr. Persaud, the opinions of the APA and GOIP are
based on how Barama chose to operate in the Akawini community rather
than on what any "critic" may have said about the company. If Mr.
Persaud had truly been representing the community, surely he would have
supported them as well. He should now tell the public what was his role
as a so called "indigenous representative" which resulted in an
unconscionable agreement signed between Akawini and the Interior Woods
Products Inc in which the community only stood to lose. Mr Persaud had
said that he had never seen the contract yet he had made several visits
to Akawini, one clearly on behalf of Barama, to try to convince the
Toshao that he should meet with Mr. Lalaram for a one-to-one discussion
to try to sort out the problems being encountered. How could Mr Persaud
not have asked to see the contract when this was the main source of the
problem for the community? This further raises questions about this
ability to represent an issue, given his admission that he has never
seen the contract.

Mr Persaud questions the representation by our organizations but we
urge him to tell us when last his "organization" held an assembly of
its members to elect an executive body, where is his constitution that
guides the operations of his "organization", and what is his membership
like? It appears that Mr. Persaud is "president for life" or otherwise
he is the epitome of leadership in his "organization" and cannot be
replaced.

Mr. Editor, it has never been the policy of our organizations to raise
matters like these in the public but we feel compelled to respond to
Mr. Persaud's baseless accusations as others may go on to believe his
ravings. We know that he will continue to use the press to spread his
groundless statements, or perhaps even use a pen name to spread his
misrepresentations but we do not wish to continue anything in public,
not because we have anything to hide or are not proud of the work of
our organizations but because we simply do not feel that cheap
politicking and accusations will get us anywhere.

Yours faithfully,

Tony James

President APA

Alan Leow

Chief, GOIP