Backbenchers do their work quietly behind the scenes
The Committee on Natural Resources has interacted with the minister and technical personnel says Dr
Stabroek News
May 19, 2004
Dr George Norton has been a member of parliament since 2001 but believes that the opposition parliamentarian's time is better spent meeting and talking with the residents in the hinterland regions about various issues than just sitting in parliament.
Dr Norton's view is influenced by his disappointment with the way the parliamentary system works at the moment. "I sit back and listen to arguments from both sides and regardless of whether the arguments put forward by the opposition are important and significant to the well-being of the nation as a whole, it is always a case of the "ayes' have it - the ayes being the majority which is the party in power," he explained.
Dr Norton says that it is important that the public should know this simply because very often people in the street with the best of intentions suggest to the PNCR that they should return to parliament whenever they boycott it as though attending parliament makes the situation different in terms of the results of the debates.
"I see attending parliament many a time as merely an opportunity for (the government) to say to the world that democracy is at work in Guyana - in other words just to rubber stamp decisions made by the government," Dr Norton asserts.
"In my personal opinion and based on my own analyses more is achieved and at a faster rate by protest action outside the parliament," and as such he has no qualms about collecting the stipend paid to parliamentarians and not attending parliament because very frequently it is spent on visiting the various communities explaining to them the state of the country.
Moreover he says that the stipend, though there are plans to improve it, is woefully inadequate to meet the travelling expenses of the parliamentarians since one trip to Lethem given the cost of fuel and the wear and tear on one's vehicle can amount to several times the stipend a parliamentarian receives.
Also, he says there are no facilities where parliamentarians can comfortably operate especially over a prolonged period and this applies not only at the national level at the Parliament buildings but also in the regions where the regional parliamentarians can hardly boast of being able to set up an office where they can meet their constituents to discuss parliamentary matters.
In this series of interviews with parliamentarians, only Heeralall Mohanlall, one of the two regional parliamentarians for Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), has said that he is accommodated at the Regional Democratic Office building where he meets with constituents one day every week.
Norton is a member of the parliamentary sector committee on natural resources and was a member of the committee which reviewed the public holidays. About his work on the natural resources committee, Dr Norton says that it provides an excellent opportunity for direct contact with personnel involved with the day to day decision making processes related to the country's natural resources.
He says that the committee has been able to interact not only with the ministers but also with the technical personnel.
Dr Norton, the sixth of his ten brothers and sisters, hails from the village of Riversview, one of the three villages - Goshen and Falmouth are the others - which form the community of that name and together the three villages have a population of about 2000.
Riversview is located in the Essequibo River and administratively it is in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) though it lies just across the river from Bartica, which is the administrative centre for Region 7 (Mazaruni/Cuyuni).
He is the village captain, a position to which he was recently re-elected for a third consecutive term, and is the only male on the all female council. He explains the phenomenon of the all-women council as due to the fact that the men have to seek employment outside the village and their extended absence militates against their involvement in the affairs of the community.
Dr Norton attended primary school at Riversview and secondary school at Bartica before entering Queen's College in 1973 where he did his A levels in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.
After Queen's Dr Morton studied Medicine in Cuba and worked at the Public Hospital Georgetown before returning to Cuba for his postgraduate studies and graduated in 1988 as an ophthalmologist. At present he is a senior consultant and head of the department of Ophthalmology at the Georgetown Hospital.
His interest in politics, he said, was sparked while at university in Cuba and because of the ideological orientation of the Cuban society he became involved in political activity while at school there.
In Guyana, his motivation to continue being politically active came from his desire to see the country developed but over the years he focused on the advocacy of the rights of the indigenous peoples and was a founder member of the Guyanese Organisation for Indigenous Peoples (GOIP).
However, because indigenous organisations are essentially non-governmental organisations, Dr Norton says that it was difficult for them to impact the decisions and policies at the national level. This, he said, led to his involvement with the Reform group which aligned itself with the PNC to contest the 2001 elections.
Since he has been in parliament, he says, the debates and different matters for discussions related to indigenous issues have been minimal. However, he says when the revision of the Amerindian Act comes up for discussion he expects to have his fair share of opportunities to impact decisions and policies.
Outside of politics, Dr Norton is president of the Beacon Football Club and president of the Interim Management Committee of the Georgetown Football League. Dr Norton is married to an Ethiopian national who is also a doctor in private practice. They have two children, both boys, the elder of whom just completed his A levels at Queen's and the younger son, also at Queen's, is a fourth former.