Pauline Sukhai has been in the National Assembly as a government backbencher for eleven years save for a two-year period (1995-1997) when she served as Parliamentary Secretary in the Amerindian Affairs Ministry.
Sukhai, who hails from Moruca in Region 1 (Barima/Waini), started her education at Santa Rosa Primary School and continued at Laluni Primary School after her parents moved to Laluni Creek. After finishing her formal education, which included a period at Singh's Commercial School in Georgetown, Sukhai left for Moscow in 1980 for a nine-month course in political science on a scholarship sponsored by the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO). She later completed a degree in Economics from the University of Guyana in 1995 and is reading for a postgraduate diploma in development studies, which she will complete next year. She is married and has three children including a 23-year-old foster son. Her other children are a 20-year old boy and a 9-year-old girl.
Sukhai is presently employed with the Land Tenure Regularisation Project, where she has been since leaving her post as an economist at SIMAP, which she held from 1998-2000. The LTR project is involved in regularising public land occupancy and issuing the occupants with titles to the land they have been occupying.
Suhkai became politically active at around age 12 when she joined the Progressive Youth Organisation and later Women's Progressive Organisation (WPO), which she has represented at various fora in the Caribbean including Cuba and Barbados as well as Mexico. She is a member of the PPP Central Committee to which she was first elected in the late 1990s and has been a member of the WPO's executive since 1981.
Her role model was the late Dr Cheddi Jagan whom Suhkai says played a major and significant role in motivating her to become politically active, especially as it related to her village, her region and at the national level.
She travelled with him on trips to China, India, Singapore, Malaysia and New York and accompanied him on most of his travels to Regions 1, 8 (Potaro/Siparuni) and 9 (Upper Essequibo/Upper Takatu).
Suhkai says she misses the kind of leadership Dr Jagan gave which included telephone calls to inquire about their activities and to offer encouragement and suggestions. She says that these calls were made regularly to wherever the recipients were. She said that the present leaders, because they are very busy, might not have time to follow this practice and probably assume that as leaders "we are considered politically responsible enough that we do not need reminding of our responsibilities."
Suhkai entered the National Assembly after the 1992 elections, which saw her party taking over the reins of government from the PNC. She retained her seat after the 1997 elections and was elected as the regional parliamentarian for Region 1 at the March 19, 2001 elections. Her major interests are poverty alleviation, Amerindian affairs and economic issues.
She says that since she has been in the National Assembly, she finds the proceedings "quite deliberative" as parliamentarians have a field day when discussing government policies and legislation. However, at least on the PPP benches, she says the backbenchers could do with some more participation but believes that they could do so if they take up the challenge of speaking on issues before the National Assembly in which they have an interest.
About the relations between the backbenchers on both sides of the aisle, Suhkai says that there are no barriers between them and they do meet and speak with each other. However, she notes that there is no networking on positions on various issues between the backbenchers but says that it is desirable as there are common positions on most issues such as those related to gender. She cites the discussion on the Abortion Bill during which both sides sought common positions and observes that consensus at their level could permeate upwards to influence the positions of their leaders.
Sukhai notes that because of the geography of some of the regions it is not easy for the regional parliamentarians to be "on the ground" with the people they represent and she wants to see some formal arrangements which provide transportation and other resources that would allow them to be more on the ground with their constituents.
She notes that there are no facilities for her to meet and speak with her constituents and she has to do so at Freedom House.
Suhkai says that though she has not been able to get to Region 1 as much as she would like, it has not hindered her ability to represent the concerns and interests of the constituency in parliament. She says she is kept informed of these from the reports from the region to the various sections of the party including the PYO and WPO. She adds that she ensures that the region is represented on all the programmes being conducted in Georgetown as well as arranges for programmes to be conducted in the region such as an Amerindian Affairs Craft Training Programme, which was conducted there in February and the Small Business Management Programme that was held at Santa Rosa in which 45 women participated.