MPs make suggestions to modernize Parliamentary record-keeping
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) motion, for actions to be taken to find the Hansard for the period January 1985 to December 1992, was passed in the National Assembly last Thursday. Amendments to it, put forward by the Government side, were defeated by the combined Opposition.
The approved original, moved by APNU Member of Parliament (MP) and Shadow Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge, said, being concerned that the official reports (Hansard) covering that time are not available, action should be taken, by the House, to submit the full records of the National Assembly for January 1985 to December 1992, as early as possible or within two months of the motion being published on the Notice Paper.
The resolution also said that, if those documents cannot be found or have been destroyed, the Speaker is to institute an enquiry into the said disappearance or destruction of them and report the findings to the House, within one month.
Greenidge said, when he went to use the Library, he discovered that all the documentation was not there and, despite their best efforts, the quest by the staff to find the missing history turned out to be fruitless.
“I am informed that the actual documents that are missing, as of now, are those of 1988 to 1992,” he told the House and said his intention is that arrangements be put in place to find them or reconstitute them if that is possible.
The APNU MP said the documents are a very important part of the country’s history and the explanations which have been rendered are “less than convincing.”

THOROUGH SEARCH
“I should be grateful, therefore, if you could see a way for us having the Clerk and his team undertake a thorough search for the documents, in the first instance and, in the event of them still being unable to find any, instituting an enquiry into their disappearance or destruction and to make recommendations for their reconstitution,” he stated.

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) MP and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, who submitted the amendments to the motion, said: “Like the Honourable Member, Mr. Greenidge, we, on the Government side of this House, understand the importance of having Hansards, since they give us an insight into the thinking and decision-making of our legislators; they also serve as an important primary source for historians and other researchers.”
He added: “The Hansards are, no doubt, very valuable records and we should have them properly catalogued and maintained for anyone who would like to use them.”
However, Dr Anthony pointed out that this is easier said than done and there are parliamentary records from the Dutch and British periods and post-colonial records, from 1966 to present, but there are many gaps in record-keeping.
“And it is not just our parliamentary records, but also the national records,” the minister acknowledged.
Minister Anthony said the issue of parliamentary records continues to be a problem and it was even documented by the former Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Frank Narain.
The minister said it was only in 1953 that the collection of documents started in the Assembly and there was a small room where the records were being placed. It was in December 1992, under the Presidency of late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, that it was agreed to make the Public Buildings available for parliamentary matters only.
“So we moved from where we were having a lot of our parliamentary documents contained in a room, not properly catalogued and, in 1992, we worked to start establishing a parliamentary library,” he related.
Anthony said the system has been going through stages and he feels that there are a number of documents that were not properly catalogued.

SPECIAL EDITION
He recalled: “When this House passed Resolution Number 46 in the Ninth Parliament, to recognise Dr. Cheddi Jagan, one of the things we committed to, in that resolution, was that we are going to prepare a special edition of the Hansard containing a collection of his speeches spanning his tenure in the National Assembly from 1947 to August 1992.”
Anthony said, to pull all the speeches together was indeed a very herculean task because, while the resolution was passed in 2007, it was only this year that they were able to present seven volumes of these speeches.
“But, even in those volumes that we did, some of the older colleagues on the PPP side have said, to me, that we have missed very important dates and occasions, so I am sure that there might be records that are out there that we have not yet catalogued and we have to look for those records. So it is a work in progress,” he admitted.
Anthony said he heard Greenidge, in his presentation, saying that while Dr. Jagan had this long tenure in Parliament, none of his speeches was missing.
“But I want to say, to you, that the seven volumes that we actually did, we were only able to do from 1947 to 1987. Dr. Jagan was in this Parliament until 1992,” the minister observed.

FULL FORCE
Anthony said it was because they did not have some of the records available to them and concurred that anyone willfully destroying or disappearing public records should be met with the full force of the law.
But he said he is not convinced that there is any willful or deliberate attempt to disappear or destroy the records of Parliament.

Dr. Anthony said he thinks that, because of the lack of record-keeping and poor cataloguing, is the reason records may not be readily available and he understands, recently, from the Parliament Office, that they had closed the library, searched and found stacks of additional materials that were not previously categorised, including records from 1988, 1989 and 1990.
“I, myself, would like to get more details on these records, because they might help us to complete the final volume of Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s speeches and, maybe, the Honourable Member Mr. Greenidge will also find the records that he is looking for,” the minister intoned.
Additionally, he said, most recently, based on resolutions passed in this House, the staff of this Parliament was engaged in compiling Hansards pertaining to former Presidents L.F.S. Burnham dating back from May 1953 to December 1953 and September 1957 to 1980. Also, Desmond Hoyte’s records from January 1969 to 1985 and from 1992 to 2002, as well as Mrs. Janet Jagan’s, from May to December 1953 and September 1957 to July 1961 and 1973 to October 1997.
Dr Anthony said this country does not have a perfect archival system neither does the Parliament but he recognised the efforts of the Speaker of the National Assembly and the staff in this regard.
“Archiving is a very special field and we need to improve the system that we currently have in this Parliament and I would have preferred a more comprehensive review of our parliamentary records going back to 1718 and, in such a review, for us to examine our current holdings and do a catalogue of what we have and what we don’t have,” he maintained.
Anthony suggested the current state of the records must also be documented and a check made to determine if the conditions, under which these documents are stored, are the optimum and after the compilation of such a review, take active steps to get those recordings.

ACTIVE MEASURES
The minister called for active measures to be taken to preserve those original documents and make copies, putting them in formats that researchers can access.
He said that, for this Tenth Parliament, some of the Hansards can be accessed online, which is a good initiative but steps should be taken to get the older documents online, too.
There should be a system where the original audio recordings can be kept in that form and the time is right, now to consider having an official video record of the proceedings of the Assembly, Anthony recommended.
“I think all of us recognise the importance of our parliamentary records and it is important that we work, collectively, to maintain the integrity of these records,” he urged.
As such, it is in this collaborative spirit that he had submitted the amendments to the Greenidge motion, Anthony explained.
PPP/C Chief Whip, Ms. Gail Texieira exhorted MPs: “Let us take the essence of the motion and not what I believe is some mischief in the intention.”
She said they should continue the search to fill the gaps, go through the transcripts, do the editing and have them published.
Alliance for Change (AFC) MP, Mr. Moses Nagamootoo said his party, unequivocally, supports the motion, while Chief Whip, Ms. Amna Ally and other APNU MP, Mr. Keith Scott were also supportive of the motion.