Backbenchers do their work quietly behind the scenes
Costly travel puts Region Seven parliamentarians at disadvantage - Alli
Stabroek News
April 22, 2004
For Husman Alli travelling around Region Seven to meet constituents is costly, if not nearly impossible. Travel to 72 Miles Potaro costs as much as $60,000 for the round trip.
Alli is the regional parliamentarian for Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) and he says that to travel to other riverain communities in the region could be just as costly as it means travelling by boat, providing gasoline for the engine and other related expenses.
He says the parliament only provides funds if you are engaged in a parliament-related activity and his party would fund travel which is for party purposes. As a consequence, the stipend being paid parliamentarians is totally inadequate.
Last month the government tabled orders, which provide for a $20,000 allowance for parliamentarians who are members of committees and a $15000 allowance for regional parliamentarians. Parliamentarians are also entitled to duty-free concession to purchase a car.
Commenting on the facilities for parliamentarians to meet and speak with their constituents, Alli describes these as woefully inadequate, explaining that if any of his constituents wanted to contact him while he is in town, they would have to track him down either at Freedom House or where he stays on the East Coast Demerara.
He says he looks forward to the day when parliamentarians would be provided with facilities at the Public Buildings where they could meet and talk with their constituents.
He describes his relations with his colleagues on the opposition backbenches as good "as when in parliament a persons says it as he/she sees it whereas his opposite number may see it differently and says it as he/she sees it."
He describes his relationship with the other Region Seven parliamentarian, the PNCR's Judith David, as excellent.
Alli has been a member of the PPP for just over five decades and a member of the first PPP group that was formed at Bartica after the split in the PPP in 1957 between Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham. He has been a member of the National Assembly since 1992.
As he tells it Alli could very well have been a member of the PNC as when the split in the PPP occurred he was undecided as to which faction to join since Burnham was his favourite because of his oratory skills. But he said once the PPP (Jagan) group was formed with the late George Henry as its organiser then he had no hesitation in joining. He explained that Henry was active in the Sawmill and Forest Workers Union and it was a natural alliance since at the time he was working in the sawmilling industry.
Alli, who has been married for some 38 years - his wife is also a PPP member as well as a member of the Women's Progressive Organisation (WPO) - grew up on the Essequibo Coast. He has nine children - they were ten but one child died - none of whom are members of the party or interested in politics. He said that their attitude to politics was formed in the 1960s when he was detained several times for his political activity. He attributes their disinterest in politics to that experience though he says that they would help him with some work but that is as far as they go.
Two of his children (girls) are overseas, while two boys and a girl are in Georgetown and the rest live and work at Bartica.
Alli was born at Land of Plenty, a village that is nestled between Three Friends and Mainstay and attended the Affiance Methodist School where he successfully wrote the Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination in 1948. He recalls writing the examination at the Anna Regina Government School and achieving passes in subjects such as Reading, Arithmetic, Geography, Hygiene, Nature Study, and Literature among others.
After leaving school, which he was forced to do, since his parents could not afford to continue his education, Alli did a number of jobs including stints at the Suddie Post Office and the Suddie Hospital (this job he quit after one day as on his first day he had to deal with a dead body as well as observe an operation which was too much for him), handyman at a store and gas station and water boy on a sea defence project, before moving to Bartica in 1952 to join his parents.
At Bartica, Alli did a number of jobs in the sawmilling and quarrying industries but continued reading and studying, attending lessons with a teacher by the name of Jairam, whenever he (Alli) could have afforded the time.
Alli recalls becoming interested in politics around the same year he moved to Bartica but joined the party in 1953 after the constitution was suspended.