FORMER People’s National Congress (PNC) Member of Parliament (MP) and a son-in-law of late President Forbes Burnham, Dr Richard Van West-Charles, last Friday, handed over, to Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, parliamentary records that would help boost the information system. Accepting the donation, in the MPs Lounge at Public Buildings, Brickdam, Georgetown, Ramkarran said the token is important because of “what the gift is and what it symbolises.”
He said it is an addition of import to what is available to MPs, primarily, as well as the public.
Ramkarran said, at the recent Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers Conference in India, which he attended from January 2 and 5, representing Guyana as a member of the Executive Committee, one of the three topics was the use of technology, including computers and other elements, which the Van West-Charles gift will assist in promoting.
The speaker said the donor is a distinguished MP between 1980 and 1987 and served as a Minister in the Government and chair of the Civil Defence Commission.
Van West-Charles “has a distinguished political and medical career and, like too few of Guyana’s sons who have done well abroad, has returned to contribute to the development of our country in various ways,” Ramkarran said.
He said the Parliament is grateful for the contribution which comprises compact discs (CDs) covering the period January to December 1962 and the month of November 1959.
Ramkarran recalled that 1962 was a very eventful year for Guyana, adding: “Our politics took a lot of forms and shapes which still impact upon us at this time.”
He said the records of that period will enable a review of what transpired in the highest body of the land.
“We are working on developing our website and, once we are able to do that fully and completely, all of this material will be on our website so that MPs, primarily, and the public will have access,” Ramkarran stated.
Van West-Charles noted that Parliament is a very important body, in terms of how the country should be governed and makes the laws and discusses programmes and resources that are allocated to the development of all of the citizens.
Important period
He said the CDs cover an important period and knowledge is a very critical issue.
“And a society as young as Guyana must be a learning society and, hence, information access must be critical and available to all of our citizens,” Van West-Charles said.
The former Health Minister said he received the data from a colleague who was privy to the documentation and insisted that the knowledge must be shared.
He said it is important that as parliamentarians come and go they can reflect and look at what other parliamentarians have done.
Van West-Charles maintained it is important for young people to have access to the same information and knowledge so they can have a sense as to how their leaders have really taken on the issues of development.
He said, as member of the PNC, his other colleagues can also review and see how the PNC Parliamentarians conducted business and represented the issues of the people.
Van West-Charles reiterated that it is vital to ensure the citizenry has access to information.
“It is a remit of not only the Government but all organisations – political, religious, cultural and social – to ensure that information access is available to members of those organisations,” he posited.
Van West-Charles said it is related to the issue of knowledge and economic development, “because when we look at the developed world, a critical driver for development is knowledge and so this is part of that process.”
He assured that as he accumulates more information, he will certainly make it available to the Parliament.
Van West-Charles also observed that many Guyanese citizens in the Diaspora, too, want to have an insight as to what has happened, in terms of development, to understand the country’s history.