Burnham's son in law returning to Guyana to be involved in politics
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| Published on Monday, September 1, 2008 |
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By Oscar Ramjeet
Caribbean Net News Special Correspondent
Email: oscar@caribbeannetnews.com
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Dr Richard Van West Charles, son in law of the late Forbes Burnham, is returning to Guyana to be involved in his country's developmental process, which includes being in the political arena.
He disclosed also that he was not happy with the leadership of the PNC (now known as PNCR), which his late father-in-law founded. He also said that the PNC government did not do enough to handle the racial problems in the country.
Dr Van West Charles, who served as Minister of Health in the Burnham administration, worked for more than 18 years with PAHO/WHO in various capacities in the several Caribbean Islands before moving to Washington, where he worked as Special Advisor on Partnerships with Financial Institutions.
The Stabroek News reported on Sunday that the UWI- and Cuban-trained doctor has established a non-governmental organisation called "Partnership and Nurturing for Development in Guyana," which has as its focus networking to look at community based development, poverty alleviation and capacity building.
He said the NGO, along with the US based GUYDA (Guyana Development Association), of which he is also a member, is seeking to establish computerised learning centres to provide easy access to information on critical issues in communities, The objective is also to build community kiosks to improve internet access in some rural areas.
He said that, although he was overseas for nearly two decades, he continued his membership of the PNC.
"Retrospectively, the PNC in government did not do enough to put the race issue on the table to address it directly, although the government at the time did give equitable religious holidays to be Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities," he said.
He told the Stabroek News that there remain insecurities in different parts of the country and not only among the two major ethnic groups, East Indians and Africans but among the Amerindian communities as well.
"The political parties need to be involved," he said on the race issue, and that the parties have to make the change. He stressed that people need to understand that race in the Guyanese political scenario is linked to power, economics and political culture.
He made a very important disclosure when asked if he was satisfied with his party's leader Robert Corbin. He said, "I think we need to have a more effective performance from the leader of the party."
He added, "The leadership in all of the governance bodies of the party. However, there is room for improvement in a number of areas and one of these areas, is how we connect in a more effect way with the communities."
The party at this stage, he said, needed to have a more dynamic system of relating to community issues, "a language that speaks directly to the community and address in a very direct way the issues of poverty and some of the social exclusion issues."
Asked whether the PNCR members were being socially excluded at various levels, the former Minister of Health said that was not the case since the party's membership was about 16,000 to 18,000 and clearly many more people were involved. He said, however, that there were members of the PPP/C and other political parties and those not politically affiliated who were socially excluded, but it was not a deliberate act of the government; and it had to do with incompetence at the governance level.
Van West Charles will return to Guyana early next year on pre-retirement leave when he will start his "active community and political life" within the PNCR. | | | | Reads : 249 | | | |
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