Georgetown : Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Teixeira has lambasted the Alliance for Change (AFC) for its ‘Sitira Gyal’ analogy made in respect of Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand; calling it “racist” and “sexist”.
Teixeira said that the political party’s reaction and criticisms of the Minister, who delivered the speech on the occasion of the 238th independence anniversary of the United States is merely a smoke-screen to target the Minister and divert attention away from the real issues that were raised in her speech.
She said that the question of whether the Minister went beyond the call of diplomacy was just a distraction to avoid having to address the fact that the former US Ambassador Brent Hardt repeatedly violated the principles of mutual respect, territorial integrity and sovereignty by which diplomats must abide.
She said that the racist and sexist comment is essentially saying that women of East Indian descent in Guyana must know their place and not step out of their confines.
Teixeira said that historically, the majority of the women that have been targeted in the media and by the Opposition Parties are East Indians and made reference to Town Clerk (ag) Carol Sooba, and Gitanjali Singh (wife of Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, whose appointment as Director of the Audit Office sparked severe controversy).
She added that, “unfortunately the women’s movement in this country rarely ever comes to their defence.”
With regards to heckling from the audience at the reception on June 2, the Presidential Advisor said that the speech delivered by now former US Ambassador Hardt was premised on the tenets of democracy and equal rights of citizens. However, when the Minister stood up and expressed her view, his supporters and friends became disruptive and showed their intolerance against someone who was just exercising her democratic right and freedom of speech.
“Here are Guyanese and some of them are in influential positions that were shouting and calling for the US to take away her visa… this is a sad reflection if this is the perspective of those people,” she said.
Teixeira also clarified that having been granted an American visa does not mean people have to become subservient.
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