Many desire a home, specifically their own. Outside of ownership seen as a mark of achievement and claim to a piece of Guyana, home ownership brings social, economic and financial stability. There are about 4000 occupants and hundreds of houses in the squatting area of Success, East Coast Demerara, which was once cane fields. These lands were abandoned during the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government when the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) no longer considered them economically feasible to continue planting canes.
Persons said they were occupying the land for more than eleven years. Others admitted when the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition Government was elected in 2015 they decided they were going to squat on lands nearest to the public road on the East Coast Demerara. Some went to Enmore and Success and were reportedly directed by leaders of the opposition PPP/C to go and squat where they presently are.
One man said that he was told if he does not go and squat there the coalition government would not give him a house lot which informed the decision to build on the land. A woman related her experiences visiting the Ministry of Housing. She said after her third interview, then Minister of Housing, Irfaan Ali said she does not have to return to the ministry and promised that a house lot would be given to her. That was in 2013. In 2015 she approached the coalition government for a lot but never received one. For her, when she was laid off because of the pandemic and having found herself in financial strains, the decision was made to squat in Success.
To remove the squatters, the government has not only broken the bridge people use to get to their homes, they have flooded the lands. This act parallels post slavery when former slave masters, in effort to force freed Africans back to the estate to work on the plantations, flooded the villages to destroy farms and livestock. It is an act of despicable cruelty best left in the past. It is an act the descendants of slaves and indentured labourers should never inflict on their fellow citizens.
It remains unfortunate now that GuySuCo wants to reclaim lands, rather than seek a civilised approach to remove occupants such as having the Government offer house lots, they have opted to dismantle bridges, flood the lands and shoot the people. In fact, the government is attacking the very people they encouraged to unlawfully occupy when they were in opposition or earlier ignored when they were in government. The PPP/C has created the squatting problem in Success and must face its demons.
The present standoff by the occupants reflects a decision to resist the very party that once enabled them. Having the police placed there for 24-hour to prevent occupation is expecting the police to clean up a situation instigated by the party. There is no national housing planning based on census, population movement and growth. Everything appears hodge-podge with the sole desire to satisfy a political intent not that of a structured development to include every group and citizen.
Those who have occupied the lands have been putting down permanent structures. It sheds another light on the housing crisis and epitomises the failure of the Government to ensure citizens have somewhere to build and live. In the meantime, persons are creating their ‘development’ which could become shanty towns, with accompanying health crises. The occupation in Success resembles what happened in Sophia. The faster the government comes to term with the reality that they will have to regularise the situation the better will be for the occupants and country.
Human rights, trade union and civil society organisations should condemn the government’s cruel response in handling the situation. Those being affected are fellow Guyanese no less deserving of a home (house lot). Persecuting them and flooding the lands where they seek refuge are unacceptable.
