Cyril Belgrave CCH has been a member of parliament since June 1976 and misses the cut and thrust of the debates of those early years.
Belgrave singled out parliamentary debaters like "Boysie" Ramkarran, the father of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran SC; Reepu Daman Persaud; Dr Cheddi Jagan and then prime minister Forbes Burnham. He described Burnham as "a great manipulator of words" who could have persuaded persons to change their positions but he was disappointed that what Burnham proclaimed loudly one day he turned out not to have believed the next day.
In those early days, Belgrave said, because the PPP's numbers in the National Assembly were small, they had the opportunity to deal with a wide range of subjects. For instance, during a budget debate he would have dealt with agriculture; the sector minister at that time being Gavin Kennard, and works and hydraulics where the minister was then Vice-President, Steve Naraine, the father of Ravi Naraine, who heads the Drainage and Irrigation Authority.
Those were excellent and challenging times because of the various bodies that petitioned the PPP opposition for representation, Belgrave said. Now because of larger numbers, he says there are greater opportunities for the other parliamentarians to make their representations.
He said he finds the current debates boring in the absence of the PNC parliamentarians as "you find yourself talking at times to the media corps." Belgrave, as everyone knows who has witnessed a debate in parliament, likes to heckle and there is no opportunity for him to do so in the absence of the opposition.
On the whole, Belgrave who sits on the Public Accounts Committee as well as the parliamentary sector committees on economic services and foreign affairs, says he has found being a parliamentarian exhilarating as he is intimately involved in the developmental process of the country. Also, as a parliamentarian he has been able to keep himself informed about the developments in the ten administrative regions and be aware of the challenges they face.
With regard to the exchange in Stabroek News' letter columns about Burnham's role in power-sharing, Belgrave said he is distressed by PNCR's executive committee member Aubrey Norton's efforts to portray Burnham as the architect of that concept. He said the nearest Burnham ever came to the idea was during the period of critical support during which the PPP took up the seats in parliament they had been given following the 1973 elections.
Belgrave recalled that during the 1963-64 period, Cheddi Jagan, concerned about national unity, called in the PNC and offered them three seats in the Cabinet. Burnham's demand for the portfolios of Finance and Home Affairs was the cause of the breakdown of the talks.
He recalled too that prior to 1973 there were talks about a National Patriotic Front government with Ranji Chandisingh and Reepu Daman Persaud leading the PPP team and the late Hubert Jack then minister of energy, leading the PNC team. When Jack was posted to Brazil as ambassador, Burnham's political adviser, Elvin McDavid took over the leadership of the PNC team. Those talks, he said, continued in one form or the other until Burnham's death and were ended by the late Desmond Hoyte when he took over the presidency and leadership of the PNC. Hoyte believed that shared governance wouldn't work, Belgrave observed. "Shared governance is not new. It is something that the PPP has been trying to bring about for a long time."
About the emoluments paid to parliamentarians, Belgrave said they are paid what the economy could afford but he agrees that it could be improved and is far below what parliamentarians in other parts of the region receive. But he observed wryly that we have to live with what we get until the economy could afford it being increased.
As an ardent trade unionist, Belgrave said his primary interest has been legislation related to workers' rights, their conditions of work and the benefits they should receive and when. A battle he is still waging is for the introduction of some form of unemployment benefit for contributors to the National Insurance Scheme while they are 'in between' jobs. He has also been interested in matters related to youth.
Of late, Belgrave's focus has shifted a little and he has begun paying closer attention to the conditions of the elderly. He recalled championing the removal of the means test.
Asked about the regulation which prohibits inmates of the Palms from receiving Old Age pension, Belgrave said it should be reviewed but observes that unlike the private homes it is the State which provides for the inmates. Also, he says it is also a question of protecting it once it is paid to them. He defends the payment to the inmates of the private homes on the grounds that their relatives pay for the service and the pension though small would ease the burden somewhat.
He advanced the argument too that while at the moment the payment represents just a small percentage of the budget, it has to be borne in mind that the changed regulation would also apply to some time in the future when the payment could be larger.
Belgrave now nearing 68, was born in Cummings Street, Cummingsburg, and grew up in East Street, Thomas Street, and King Street before finally moving to Carmichael Street, opposite the Bishops' High School. He attended St George's Primary School and for a short while Enterprise High School where RBO Hart was then the principal.
His first working experience was at Stampa in the Essequibo River at a timber grant operated by the Colonial Development Corpora-tion. He spent a year there before returning to Georgetown where he did a number of odd jobs including working at a number of bakeries in Georgetown,
He finally went to work on the waterfront beginning at Bookers' Thom and Cameron wharf in 1953.
He was a registered waterfront worker by 1956 and remained on the waterfront until he retired. During that time, he did a number of jobs, from labourer to operator of a number of mechanical equipment including cranes and forklifts. He was also a member of the Georgetown City Council for a number of years before entering parliament.
Belgrave joined the Guyana Labour Union in 1955 and rose through the ranks of the waterfront branch first as shop steward then vice-chairman and then taking over from former president of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, the late Samuel Walker in 1984. He still considers himself a member of the union but is no longer an active member.
Belgrave has been a member of the PPP central committee since 1976, having joined the Pioneer Youth League, the predecessor organisation of the Progressive Youth Organisation in 1955. He held various posts in the party at the group level including vice-chairman and then chairman of the Georgetown group before his election to the central committee.
Belgrave is married and the father of 11 children some of whom are, as he puts it, with various families. The eldest child is 48 and the youngest 17 years old. He says he has about 29 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.