Jerome Khan is unapologetic for his current absence from the National Assembly, which he feels is nothing but a charade.
Khan says he is disappointed with his experience as a parliamentarian and believes the National Assembly is a useless forum because of the historical grudges some members on the government benches still harbour.
Khan, who entered the National Assembly after the 2001 elections, is one of three Members of Parliament from the Reform component of the PNCR. He says he is frustrated with parliament because no matter how sensible a proposal is, once it is put forward by the opposition, it is simply thrown out.
He defends his party's decision not to take part in the budget debate, explaining that it would only be participating in a charade, given the stranglehold the government has on the parliament.
Khan is a member of the Parliamentary Sector Committee on Foreign Relations and says he is disappointed that the government does not treat the work of the committee with the seriousness it should be accorded. He believes the government should liaise with the committee to get its support for any major initiative it intends to undertake.
Khan is disappointed that the committee was informed about the Guyana-Barbados Excusive Economic Zone Cooperation Agreement after the fact. He says it was only at the last minute that the government sought to brief the committee about its intention to refer the maritime border dispute with Suriname to the arbitral process under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Like all of the other backbenchers interviewed so far, Khan also finds the facilities available to parliamentarians inadequate. Khan says parliamentarians receive monthly: a telephone allowance of $20; an entertainment allowance of $250; a duty allowance of $150 and a commuted travel allowance of $8,289 in addition to their basic salary of just over $38,000.
Khan describes his relations with his colleagues across the aisle as friendly though he feels it is less so with those who still smart from historical scars and bitterness. But he says there is mutual respect between him and Finance Minister Saisnarine Kowlessar, Education Minister Dr Henry Jeffrey, Agriculture Minister (ag) Satyadeow Sawh and former Attorney General Bernard De Santos SC.
Khan hails from Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara and says he was born in a logie. He now lives in Bel Air Gardens, which in earlier days was an enclave of powerful expatriates. His father, now deceased, was a small cane farmer and hire car driver and his mother, who now resides in Canada ran a small cake shop.
He is the fourth of seven children; six boys - two eldest have passed away - and a girl.
Khan attended the Cane Grove Anglican School where he came under the influence of the late Phillip Chan, a former Guyana ambassador to Suriname and the late Basil Blair, a former president of the Guyana Teachers' Union.
He obtained his secondary education at Cummings Lodge Secondary School and Central High School. After high school, Khan worked for a bit before migrating to Canada in February 1975 where he completed his high school education before enrolling at York University, Toronto Canada where he read for his Bachelor of Arts with Economics and History as his majors. He graduated in 1980. He was recruited as a management trainee with the Bank of Nova Scotia after York and worked there for six years gaining experience in administration, credit management and personal banking.
Khan returned to York in 1986 to read for a degree in English and Mass Communication and graduated in 1987. He then enrolled at Brock University where he read for a degree in Education which he obtained the following year. Upon graduation Khan was employed by the Peele Board of Education and taught English and other liberal arts subjects for seven years.
Khan returned home at end of 1994 on sabbatical leave and after a brief stint with GTV got into business and remained at home, something he said he had wanted to do since 1989 when he observed the changes taking place under the Desmond Hoyte administration. He didn't, he said, because he had a young family at the time.
Khan said he got involved in politics because he did not want to be harping about things from the sidelines and he couldn't just live here without trying to make a contribution to the country.
He recalled meeting regularly with a group of remigrants like himself - the group was 15 strong, but only two have remained in Guyana - to discuss economic, political and national issues. He said while the group was composed of persons of differing political views, none of whom were friendly to the PNC, they could not understand why the PPP would discard all that was done by Hoyte merely for political reasons.
His formal involvement in politics resulted from his letters on a number of economic and related issues coming to the attention of Hoyte, who invited him to a meeting at which Stanley Ming was also present. The discussion centred on restructuring the political architecture of Guyana through creating opportunities to develop Guyana from coast to coast and he shared his views on how businesses could be attracted to Guyana.
From that meeting, Khan said, a group of like-minded persons from a variety of political backgrounds devised a plan which could be sold not only to the Guyanese at home but also to the regional and international communities for developing Guyana.
He said the group, though not enamoured with the PNC, recognised the danger of the PPP which had begun to politicize all the institutions in the country. He said the Reform group which emerged, associated with the PNC on the clear understanding that the PNC would take on board its concerns and ideas for national development.
Khan makes no apology for being a free market adherent but said that such policies must take account of the disadvantaged, the differently-abled, the young and old, the poor and disadvantaged and the environment and put institutional arrangements in place to protect them.