Thirty-five-year-old Trevor Williams describes his involvement in politics “as most natural” since as long as he remembers he has been outspoken and always wanted to be a part of whatever was happening around him. As a new parliamentarian therefore he would not represent his party but rather he would be aiming to represent the people of Guyana.
“[My] interest in political affairs has always been a very active one in current affairs… whenever the opportunity came I would step up to be involved and make representation, hence coming from that background I joined the AFC which I think was most natural; I didn’t have a difficulty,” one of the new faces in the National Assembly told the Sunday Stabroek recently.
Coming from a tough childhood with his mother the only parent in the house, Williams said he has never allowed difficulties to block him from striving for greater heights, and he sees his appointment by the Alliance For Change (AFC) as a parliamentarian as a way of working for the people since “politics is about working on behalf of people.”
Williams, who has been a part of the Alliance for Change (AFC) since its inception, said he was the first young person to publicly endorse the party.
“I had voted before; then I was a student of the University of Guyana, but endorsing the AFC was a very big step for me,” he said.
And his move to the AFC was something well planned by him as he was the one to approach the three founder members, Raphael Trotman, Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder on separate occasions unknown to each of them that he was meeting the other.
“I felt that the AFC made sense in this country. I knew it would have taken brave people to join it but I felt that it really made sense as we had more or less come to the place where we needed some change, and I think the three of them had the experience to really start such a movement.”
Since 2006 Williams said he was very active on the campaign trail, although it was not easy as on many occasions they were verbally assaulted, “and [there was] a lot of rejection, and for me not being a politician, it was very hard, but I stood my ground because I knew that I had [greater] strength than that what was coming to us.”
“I don’t see myself as just an AFC MP I see myself as a member of parliament for Guyana and my representation would not be limited to an AFC cause; it would be for [the] national interest working with everybody and listening to everyone regardless of where they stand,” he said in the interview.
The party has designated the natural resources sector and youth, sport and culture as areas which Williams will focus on in parliament, and with his background in international affairs he would also be supporting the AFC and opposition shadow minister in that area.
He was given the natural resources sector because he grew up in the village of Morashee, a small island in the Essequibo River where he spent him younger days. At university he was also a member of the Caribbean Youth Environmental Network which is a regional body in the Caribbean that advocates for the preservation and protection of the environment.
Williams posited that the country’s natural resources ought to give Guyanese a better way of life and over the years the country has been exploited with the best of what it has leaving these shores.
“I would like to see communities from where all of this harvesting and reaping comes from, whether it is bauxite, gold or lumber, that something be done in the form of a programme to help develop people’s lives…”
He called for the new Natural Resources Ministry to focus on taking care of people, as they build their lives in Guyana around the availability of a resource and when that is done even with periodic employment, they generally have nothing to go back to. He said the approach by the ministry should be a holistic one, since the people are the national resource and a road should not be built in their area as compensation but rather their need for food, income and sustainable programmes should be met.
“Whoever comes into Guyana must come in a very responsible manner knowing that it is not just to sign a contract with the government and pay – I call it, shabby tax… they have to focus on the communities and in our action plan the AFC spoke about the development of youths in the communities.”
Meanwhile, Williams said that the AFC is in a position to bring change with the new dispensation in parliament, but noted that it appears as if much negotiation is not part of the government’s agenda. As a result Williams said his party would be not be surprised if the government calls a snap election, but were this to happen he would ask Guyanese to interpret this as the government not intending to change its way of operation since it would always be winner-take-all for them.
“This is a great opportunity for us to work together in this country; it is like a window has opened, a window of opportunity for everybody, government, opposition and people, to really work together for the better[ment] of this country.”
Interracial village
Williams said he grew up in an interracial village adding that he and two siblings were the only two African-Guyanese in his school.
“I come from a life of very humble beginnings – single parent, it was tough. I went to school and took care of siblings at times. I went to school for two days and then I worked for five but in all of that I still managed to be the top student in my school,” he said during the interview.
But because of poverty he was unable to attend secondary school and was forced to return to his primary school and at one point worked in the school in a teaching capacity but was unable to write CXC as a teenager.
“So I had no secondary school education… but I had little opportunities in the school leadership and at the community level.”
He has always been an active member in the Full Gospel Ministries and in 1998 he attended the church’s bible college at Haruni International Missionaries Training Centre on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway and got a certificate in theology.
He wrote CXC at the age of 25 at the Critchlow Labour College, and he topped with seven subjects.
“Critchlow was a second institution and we guarded that very well and ensured that in our time we had a great bunch of students.”
In parliament also he would be an advocate for the government subvention to be returned to the institution, since according to him it is an “injustice for it not to have the subvention.”
“It is an institution that has been responsible for change and transformation in many, many lives and as a member of parliament I promise the institution that the question would always be asked of the government to be responsible to that institution,” he said.
After Critchlow he moved to the University of Guyana where he read for a degree in International Relations. At the college he was the head student representative and he arranged for some students to travel overseas; he was also the debating champion for two years.
At the university he got the opportunity to be part of the Americas model of the United States and went with the Guyana delegation to Brazil for two years and later was Guyana’s representative at the South-South Cooperation conference among others.
“For me to sit back and to think where I came from is a very heartening thing,” Williams said.
He said his teachers played an important role in him not giving up when all the signs were pointing him in that direction, as they saw leadership quality in him and encouraged him. He named Edmond Evelyn, Lalta Ramkissoon and Denise Allen, all teachers of the Morashee Government School, as they ensured he stayed on course. While at Critchlow Labour College, Phillip Walcott and Lincoln Lewis helped to mould him.
At present Williams is a corporate sales executive at a private company, but his political work may force him to probably open his own business if he cannot fulfil his employer’s mandate. He hopes to one day study law.
