First time parliamentarian Cathy Hughes has vowed to continue the work of deceased AFC founding member and former parliamentarian Sheila Holder when the 10th Parliament is convened.
Holder, a former consumer advocate, had been affiliated with the Working People’s Alliance and in 2005 joined with Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan to form the Alliance For Change. She died on November 20 last in the US, aged 65, after ailing for some time with stomach cancer.
Holder was a staunch supporter of social welfare issues in the House and garnered much attention for her contributions to the debate on the pensions system. Hughes said she fees very strongly about continuing Holder’s work in that particular area and wider social concerns.
“The average citizen is still not allowed to get the benefits that Guyana should be able to give to its people and here we’re talking about the cost of living reduction, easing some of that burden, we’re talking about pensions, we’re talking about access to housing,” Hughes said.
The AFC will be holding a memorial service for Holder on Tuesday at the St. George’s Cathedral from 2 PM.
Meanwhile, Hughes, a media entrepreneur, said she will also be making access to the media one of her platforms given the existing situation where the national media network has been controlled by the government in power.
“I certainly think it’s very unfair that political parties in Guyana do not have an equal opportunity to use the nation’s resources to spread their message and allow the people of Guyana the integrity and the right to be properly informed and to make informed choices,” she stated.
According to Hughes, she would not like to see Guyana going into another election in the next five years with political parties facing the kind of “discrimination” that opposition parties faced from the state and state affiliated media houses during the 2011 campaign.
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