Guyanese women leaders’ disappearing act

Mar 29, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – I first honoured Minister Dr. Vindya Persaud. Pres. Ali, Minister Edghill, and former minister Dharamlall followed. Today, other women in the PPP Government are called out. No hauling over hot coals. There are two Roman Catholic sisters, both ministers in the PPP Government: the honourable Gail Texeira and Susan Rodrigues. Others include a current and former Minister of Education. Theirs is the right to enmity; mine is the call to duty, questing for clarity.

A daughter, a woman, of Guyana, Ms. Melinda Janki, attorney, is demeaned and degraded in unspeakable terms. It would have been good to hear the voices of Dr. Persaud (dealt with already), and Ministers Texeira, Rodrigues, Manickchand, Parag, Walrond, and Benn. If I, in ignorance, excluded other female PPP government ministers, they’re still included. It would have inspired to hear the voices of these stalwart Guyanese sisters. If the family linkage incurs distaste and wrath, it is merely another day in the life. The objective is not to incense, but to encourage. It would have inspired all Guyana to hear the burning rage of these fine women against a man, fellow worker, close comrade, who dared to go to the lengths that he did in his haste to disparage a woman, a fellow sister.

I believe they all harboured heavy indignation in the seclusion of their hearts, or well-developed righteous outrage in the privacy of close companions, at what was meted out to Ms. Janki. But that is not good enough, doesn’t go far enough. When women are passive, then some men may get ideas that they are easy. Pushovers. Don’t matter. Ornaments on desks, wallpaper to be walked over. Wallpaper doesn’t have to be on the floor to be walked over. Think carefully, members of the hallowed PPP sorority. If a start isn’t made sometime at someplace for someone, no matter which woman or man, then who and when? When the time for you comes calling on clawed feet and daggered hand. Then there will only be me, if still around, to stand up and say, not again. Why the hell is this still happening here? To my two fellow Roman Catholics, it is good to remember the teachings and hold them close. It is better to live them, come what may. To the two Ministers of Education, present and past, I urge that there be something for the primary and secondary children, for the university young ladies, that once when there was the unacceptable, that there were two women who left the books (and politics) behind, stood tall, and said: No way, Jose! Over my dead body! As a brother I say to my sisters in the PPP government, this is the worst time to be all for one and one for all. Come blizzard or brimstone. Then what Guyana is there?

Not because Melinda Janki is an attorney. But because she is a woman and a patriot first and first. If a man is not allowed to kick a female dog in the mean streets of Guyana, then why can he, what pass can be given to he, when that is done on the gritty streets of social media? Will somebody somewhere, somewhere deep inside the PPP, or anywhere outside of it, stand up and say something? That there has been enough of this type of behaviour. That this kind of putrid and pungent practice doesn’t have a place, nor a roof, in Guyana to rest its head. If the only attribute that I possess is politics, then I might as well find a pasture to remove my shoes, plant myself there.

Of what use is it to gain the most prized job, with the richest pay and all the perks, only to lose my soul? Voice lost first, then the heart faltered, with the mind then stilled into submission. Thus, it was only the ticking of the clock that signalled the loss of the soul was next in line. I am told that women have been liberated. Then daughters of Guyana, ladies in the PPP, there’s a duty. Go ahead and do it. Private recoiling is fine. Public standing up is the finest. A national government minister is not a Mistress of the Robes, bed chamberlain, or lady-in-waiting. From Queen Boadicea to Joan of Arc died for a cause. Get a cause, my Guyanese sisters. Draw that line. Stand on it, hold it.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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Dharamlall, Dr. Vindya Persaud, Gail Texeira, GHK Lall, Melinda Janki

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