Jagdeo administration should show respect for the nation’s youth

Oct 17, 2010 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

---

The People’s National Congress Reform is concerned at the disrespect and lack of interest in their well being which the Jagdeo PPP/C Administration is showing towards the Nation’s youth. Our party believes that, just weeks after Child Protection Week was observed, (from Sunday 19th September to Saturday 25th September 2010), there has been more than enough damage done to impair the confidence of our youths in whether they have a future here in the land of their birth.
Our Party recognises that the nation’s youths must be endowed with the capabilities and capacity to take responsibility for the future development of Guyana. However, the PNCR is conscious that our youths require sustenance, guidance and protection.
The approaches needed, for this to be achieved, include tolerance, patience and the example of disciplined behaviour by adults and leaders in our society.
It is unfortunate that these elements are lacking, since the leaders of our country have proven, time and time again, that they are ill equipped to set the proper examples. Children in Guyana can no longer look up to, and admire the adults in key leadership positions.
Those same leaders have proven, on several occasions, that they have no problem exploiting children and youths, and have, in some instances, contributed to leading them down a disastrous path.
The PNCR, in its Press Statement dated Friday 17 September, 2010, under the caption, “The PNCR Disgusted With President Jagdeo Using Public Forums To Abuse And Belittle Citizens”, was forced to highlight the unbecoming conduct of the Head of State, President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The Party statement observed that, “It seems that President Jagdeo finds it difficult to observe the standards of decorum which are expected of the Head of State. The President should have delivered a morally uplifting and inspirational Address to the Graduation Ceremony, at the National Cultural Centre, on Wednesday 1st September 2010, for students who recently completed scholarships”.
Because of the statements made by the President, concerning elderly citizens, the Party was forced to ask the question, “What message was he conveying to these young people who are about to start to contribute to nation building?  Is the President advocating that these young people should disrespect and disregard their elders?”
Doesn’t President Jagdeo realize that a misled child or youth is a lost child or youth?
The Party is also forced to recall the 2009 saga involving Information Liaison to the President, Kwame McCoy, and a fifteen-year-old male.
On Wednesday 9th September, 2009, a recording of a conversation, alleged to be between Presidential Liaison Kwame McCoy and Julius, a fifteen-year-old boy, was made public, after the boy complained to his relatives about alleged sexual advances towards him by Kwame McCoy.
The injustice and violation of the rights of children was made clear when, instead of being sanctioned and probably sacked from the Office of the President, after the recording was published, McCoy filed an injunction against Kaieteur News, Prime News and Capitol News, to prevent the media houses from further publishing words or images, that have the effect of insinuating or suggesting that he was involved in acts of child molestation and sexual predation on minors, until the determination of a summons to continue the injunction.
That injunction was eventually dismissed by Chief Justice Ian Chang.
After much mischief, McCoy ran, like a “deer caught in headlights”, making good his escape to neighbouring Brazil. When questioned by reporters, about McCoy’s disgusting and inappropriate behaviour, Head of State, President Bharrat Jagdeo, not surprisingly, said that he would look into the McCoy matter and make a determination on McCoy’s fate once he was fully briefed.
Did the President ever make a proper inquiry into the matter or was he, at the time, in his usual “bluff mode”? We can only assume that the President made the inquiry and was fully briefed, therefore, the public needs to be told what were the findings and what action has been taken.
Silence prevails! The Party notes that, despite this unsavoury episode, Kwame Mc Coy remains the representative of the Ministry of Human Services on the Constitutional Rights of the Child Commission.
Meanwhile, Kaieteur News columnist, Freddie Kissoon, in his column, dated Friday 1st October 2010, under the caption, “I Am Responsible For The Disappearance Of Julius”, revealed that “Julius and his mother have disappeared. They are not dead. Benschop and I went back to the home weeks after and neighbours told us that the relatives are the care-takers. I assume that Julius and his mother are alive because why would the relatives live in the home, not hear from or see Julius and his mother, and not report that they are missing? How did they get to live in the house in the first place?”
Mr. Kissoon is of the opinion “that Julius and his mother have been secretly moved and are very much alive”.   The columnist further suggested that “abundant resources” were used to “entice the mother and son to remain silent”.
The Guyanese public should draw their own conclusions from the reality that Kwame McCoy continues to sit on the right hand side of Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, during his weekly press briefings.
Thursday 30 September 2010 marked one year since Kwame fled from the scene of his inappropriate behaviour.
The Party also recalls the October 2009 reported torture of a fourteen-year-old boy, Twyon Thomas, by members of the Guyana Police Force, while he was in police custody at the Leonora Police Station on the West Coast of Demerara.
On Saturday 31st October, 2009, the Kaieteur News carried, on its front page, the horrid photograph of the wounds inflicted on this 14 year old boy. Twyon Thomas will have to journey his entire life with the physical and mental scars inflicted by that experience. This is certainly not how children should be treated and protected.
We also cite the case of 16-year-old Kelvin Fraser a student of the Patentia Secondary School, on the West Bank of Demerara, who was unarmed when he was gunned down, on 7th June 2010, by a member of the Guyana Police Force.
The motto of the Guyana Police force is “Service and Protection”, but how can our children feel protected if those charged with the responsibility for their protection are guilty of treating them like animals, maiming, damaging, violating their human rights and even murdering them?
How could any Guyanese ever forget the recent horrific story of the experiences of the late sixteen-year-old, Neesa Gopaul, whose headless remains were discovered in a suitcase, on Saturday 2nd October 2010, near the Emerald Tower Resort at Madewini off the Soesdyke/Linden Highway?
The past weeks have revealed that this was a teen whose life could have been saved by a competent and caring Human Services Ministry. Unfortunately, the revelations of the behaviour of officials, within this Ministry, indicate an undesirable lack of regard and respect for the lives of our youth, by the Administration. How are Governmental institutions taking care of our youth?
The PNCR is awaiting the publication of the results of the internal investigations, being conducted by the Human Services Ministry, into the manner in which the case of Neesa Gopaul was dealt with. What sanctions will be brought against delinquent officers? Will the Human Services Minister, Priya Manickchand, herself, face any sanctions?
The Human Services Ministry must do more to protect our youths. The Party has noted, with deep regret, the recent murder of an eight-month-old baby by her mother who herself is at the tender age of eighteen. Earlier counselling and guidance for this young mother might have avoided such a disastrous ending.
The PNCR, accordingly, calls on the Government and all members of our society to strive to make our youths feel special, loved, wanted, secure and protected. In this regard, an imperative must be that leaders, especially those in Government, have to set the proper example of moral uprightness, compassion and respect for the laws of Guyana.

---

---