Volda, Simona and Priya: Life is about people

Dec 14, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I did a column in which I took the position that in this current age, women are due for their rightful place in the sphere of real power. As such, the PNC should have a female chairman and the PPP, a woman presidential candidate for 2020.
In my piece on Monday, July 2, 2018, captioned, “The race to succeed Granger heats up,” I observed; “The present zeitgeist in the world favours the expanding presence of women in all spheres of life. It may not be an exaggeration to say the 21st century belongs to women. I will not endorse Ms. Lawrence for reasons of principles but I would like to see a woman lead both the PNC and PPP. The PPP once had a woman leader. It is time the PNC has one.”
In the context of the way the world evolved, women were never acknowledged as equal to men. Their rightful place is long overdue. But in the end life is about people, humans, real, living people. We may see the need for gender and ethnic quota but life teaches some harsh lessons. Women and gender quotas can result in a good man being overlooked for a terrible woman and a good person of a certain ethnic background being sidelined to please race balance.
Once I get down to write my memoir, obviously I cannot leave out 26 years of activism at the University of Guyana as a lecturer. I saw how destructive racially driven instincts were at UG and I saw the brilliance of Jagdeo as a politician in that racial drama. I don’t like Mr. Jagdeo’s politics at all but he is a clever tactician.
The African Guyanese academics wanted a Black Vice-Chancellor so Jagdeo gave them what they wanted. Jagdeo contemptuously outsmarted them. Jagdeo picked a Black Vice-Chancellor that was more malleable and sycophantic than any Indian Vice-Chancellor would have been. In fact, so terrible was the man’s performance that when he was to be removed and his likely replacement was a far better administrator and academic, the staff demanded the retention of the African-Guyanese.
After all, “We must have a Black man at the head of UG”, never mind he was a terrible performer. Remember the infamous saying by the Americans of the Nicaraguan dictator, Somoza; “He is a son of a bitch but he is our son of a bitch.” So Jagdeo gave them what they wanted but Jagdeo got what he, Jagdeo, wanted in the end at UG because, he Jagdeo was smarter than all those big academics who wanted “our Blackman” at all cost.
So it is women’s time in the world and no doubt her DNA as a woman was the factor that caused Volda to win the election as chairman for the PNC. But look what happened. This woman turned out to be a gargantuan disappointment. Lawrence continued with her old ways instead of wearing the crown of a future president.
Will I still support a woman candidate for the PNC and PPP for 2020? The answer is yes. But if there is a talented, decent man running against Volda Lawrence, I will write in support of him. There are certain women whose role in politics should come to an end. Two names come to mind – Simona Broomes and Priya Manickchand.
These two persons should not be considered for political office just because the world wants women to be in powerful positions. I honestly think Broomes and Manickchand do not have the temperament for public office which at all times must be a receptacle of values that must guide the younger generation.
My problem with Broomes and Manickchand is that they are not changing people, and my opinion is that they do not care to change. One fundamental reason explains this. Broomes has the support of her fellow PNC leaders who will stand by her because party politics here is a tribal affair and we must protect our own. It is the same thing in the PPP with Manickchand.
Broomes drifts from one incident to another and you do not see the redeemable clouds in the skies above her head. You are forced to ask; when and where will Broomes do her bravado thing again? The most recent was at the Providence New Thriving.
When will Priya strike? Not satisfied with the national embarrassment she caused Guyana in 2014 at the home of the American ambassador, Priya did her questionable thing recently, in of all places – the sacred halls of Parliament. She cried in front of the cameras that policemen assaulted her. She is yet to supply the proof.

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