Skip to main content

FM
Former Member

US wades into Minister for ‘slap and strip’ threats

April 24, 2015 | By | Filed Under News 
 

- another tape surfaces as pressure mounts for his resignation

Even as he has received criticism from at least one member of the diplomatic corps, dozens of political

Minister of Health, Bheri Ramsaran

Minister of Health, Bheri Ramsaran

commentators and even members of his own party, Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran has once again lashed out at women rights activist, Sherlina Nageer. Mere hours after issuing a public apology for his “harsh words” the previous day, Ramsaran yesterday launched another tirade against Nageer. This time the Health Minister was recorded labeling Nageer a “miscreant,” saying that she was in need of “psychiatric help.” Yesterday, as he addressed a meeting of Regional Health Officers at the Main Street Plaza, Georgetown, Ramsaran, who is also a People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) candidate, was heard on a recording saying “So we have these miscreants who sometimes they are supported by the international community because they are rights activists; right to come spit in my face but not collect two slap, you understand me, or one of my ladies who love me, wreck her up, you understand me?” “Well you know I’m Bheri best, all the ladies like me. Suppose one of my big strong women seh “wuh yuh do we doctor, wuh yuh do dis innocent lil man?’ Wacks! Wacks! Then she’s going to become a hero; some of us will make sure we give her a medal. Right, spit in my face. I don’t know if she got rabies or what, I know she was rabid. That woman needs psychiatric help. She needs psychiatric help,” Ramsaran emphasised in the second recording. The Health Minister has already received condemnation from PPP/C’s Prime Ministerial Candidate

US Charge d’Affaires, Bryan Hunt

US Charge d’Affaires, Bryan Hunt

 

Elisabeth Harper, Education Minister Priya Manickchand, former President Bharrat Jagdeo and the youth and women arms of the APNU+AFC for the first attack against Nageer. US Charge d’Affaires Bryan Hunt is reported to have told online news agency, newssourcegy.com, that such statements have no place in a country like Guyana that has a high rate of domestic violence and sexual and gender-based violence. Hunt was recorded as saying “In a country that has a domestic violence rate as high as Guyana’s and a sexual assault rate as high as Guyana’s, it is downright irresponsible for any senior politician to make the statement to any woman, in public or in private, that the Minister of Health made the other day. It is completely unacceptable.” Hunt went on to state that “there is no possible reason or rationale to threaten sexual violence against anyone, but especially against a woman, given Guyana’s very serious gender-based violence problem”. Though he said he was pleased at the response of Ramsaran’s colleagues who took him to task for his comments, he considered the conduct “quite frankly to be a disgrace.” Hunt explained that while it was important and appropriate for the Minister to apologise for his conduct, “what would have been more appropriate was for him to never have made the statement in the first place”. “Do I think it is enough? I don’t think you can un-ring a bell. I don’t think you can take back the damage

Women’s Rights Activist, Sherlina Nageer

Women’s Rights Activist, Sherlina Nageer

that would have already been done by suggesting that sexual violence is an appropriate response to whatever sort of provocation that the Minister felt he was under.” “I think the damage is much more severe than what the woman’s activist heard or the offence that she took at the remarks. I think it conveys a sense from a senior government official that somehow sexual violence is something that is appropriate to use, appropriate to threaten, and somehow societally acceptable and it’s not. It can’t be,” Hunt told the online agency. The excuse offered by Ramsaran has also been found as unacceptable by the US envoy who made it clear that he does not believe that there is any possible provocation that any woman could have made that would legitimately result in a response in which a senior government official threatens that woman with violence. “The Minister’s conduct was beyond, it was disgraceful…I think the question that should he be asked to resign is one the party has to struggle with internally and I will let them have their internal debates about that.” “Should he resign out of his own volition? I’m not going to prescribe to the Minister what he ought to do, but what I will say is in the United States if one of our candidate officials were to have made that sort of comment, that person would have been expected to resign without question. “I daresay, having had a conversation earlier today with some of my colleagues from the other western missions,that same principle would hold true across any number of countries that a Minister making that type of inappropriate remark for whatever reason would have chosen voluntarily to step down.” “I don’t believe that there is any possible provocation that any woman would have made that would have legitimately resulted in a response in which a senior government official threatens that woman with sexual violence…It was a threat of sexual violence and I can’t imagine what possible provocation could result in that reaction,” Hunt said. A number of non-governmental organisations and activists have issued a call for the Minister to step down from office. Meanwhile, more than 250 persons from across the Caribbean and the diaspora have signed on to the CatchAFyah Caribbean Feminist Network solidarity statement in support of Sherlina Nageer. The body had said that the invocation of “provocation” is frequently used to justify and rationalise men’s fatal violence against women and has crept into state and activist responses to violence. “The language of provocation, just like the denigrating language and threats the Minister directed at Sherlina, is the language of misogyny” the body said. They noted that Nageer was verbally abused for insisting that women’s lives and health matter. “She was threatened with the misogynist and violent acts of public stripping and beating for insisting that governments have a responsibility to ensure women have access to quality sexual and reproductive health services.” The body said it recognised such “abuses of state power as a reflection of hatred of women, an unwillingness to recognise us as fully human and a refusal to treat us as equals. They also reflect the callous disregard elected officials show for the people — boys and girls, women and men — they are meant to serve.”

Replies sorted oldest to newest

This is what is meant by, shit does hit the fan.

 

What that creep did has gone around the globe more or less. Guyana has been in the cross hairs for awhile now...the trigger is being pulled....slowly. Those scuzzy bastard days are numbered.

 

He should resign by tomorrow, but it is sweet sweet Guyana, to da moon...in a train..nehru's way.

cain

Sherlina Nageer was exercising her democratic right to hold a government minister accountable

April 24, 2015 | By | Filed Under Letters
 

 Dear Editor, A quick apology from an abusive spouse is almost a cliché. The abusive behavior displayed by sitting government Minister Bheri Ramsaran is yet another stain on the wall of shame that represents the bloody history of violence against women in Guyana. Sherlina Nageer was exercising her democratic right to hold a government minister accountable for the abysmal  performance of the ministry for which he is responsible. Her questioning and tone were quite appropriate, and Editor, I would make the case that she was in fact doing the work of a responsible citizen, a responsible journalist, a responsible member of civic society when she questioned him intensely, and did not allow him to get away with the “we’ll do better next time” excuse. The Minister’s vicious response and then subsequent half-hearted apology to Ms. Nageer reminds of a perpetrator, who after engaging in abusive behavior, takes the time to convince the victim that the attack he experienced was his fault. Minister Ramsaran’s apology is of no consequence to the women of Guyana.  The ease with which he attempted to demean, dismiss, and devalue Ms Nageer reflects the repressive and abusive master-servant disposition which so many citizens, and too often women, struggle to survive each day.  It is simply not enough to apologize and move on. For their obviously corrosive views of fifty percent of our population, this minister, like his other ministerial colleague Anil Nandlall, is not fit to hold office and to represent the people of Guyana. Moreover, Guyanese citizens should not be saddled with the responsibility of paying the salary of an abuser.  Bheri Ramsaran should resign.

Karen Abrams Director, Human Equity Ratings Organization, Inc.

FM

The Corrupt PPP/C by not looking at the abuses this scumbag express towards women, is just as agreeing to his actions, by keeping him on the job.

 

If the PPP/C was a responsible Government, this man should have been fired ever since.

 

Does Guyanese needs a prick like Beri Beri to harass Guyanese Women?

FM
Last edited by Former Member

There is a God who will protect people like Shirlina Nageer and crush those who want to strip her

April 24, 2015 | By | Filed Under Letters 
 

Dear Editor, My head hangs in shame, my heart bleeds calling myself a Guyanese. The incident on Monday (April 20th, 2015), wherein a Minister of the PPP Government attacked a woman in broad daylight in Whim, Corentyne (the heartland of the AFC) has shaken my conscience and I am sure hundreds, if not thousands of Guyanese like me?  What was her fault?  For questioning the untruth being peddled by a Minister with a deceptive agenda?  The victim only raised her voice against the poor state of the health-care system, his primary responsibility. Rather than address the merit or demerit of the issues she raised, the Minister launched into a personal attack on this good woman with an armory of high-tech and low-tech verbal assaults that created the conditions for the physical stripping of this woman; a real possibility if the media was not there.  He has learnt well from Bharat. Hinduism has taught me one critical lesson that forms the basis of the scriptures of the Bhagavad Gita; unrighteous and demonic behavior will always be conquered by righteousness; good will always overcome evil.  In the Bhagavad Gita, there is a particular chapter of the scriptures dealing with Draupadi’s honor.  For those who do not know about Draupadi, she was Queen of the Pandavas family. In that family, the mentally corrupted King Yudhisthir gambled his wife at a game of dice causing the demonic King Duryodhana to leverage his victory to seize Draupadi and instruct for her to be stripped naked.  Similar to the wishes of Minister Bheri; isn’t it?  Duryodhana called on his brother Dushana to “Strip Draupadi and don’t stop until she kneels naked before us men in this hall of dice”.  As Dushana stepped forward to do this evil deed, Draupadi dropped on her knees and in despair prayed “OH LORD KRISHNA … spare me this shame …. give justice to my prayers”. After hearing Draupadi’s fervent prayers, the good Lord went into action.  As soon as Dushana removed a yard of her sari, the good Lord replaced it with new material thus securing the honor of Draupadi.  As Draupadi continued her prayers, her face streaked by grateful tears, Lord Krishna whispered in her ears “Never think that I am far from your distress.  If the wicked oppress you … or try to expose your innocence, know this truth, they will only expose themselves. Know this ancient truth – those moved by greed and envy come to the gates of hell, where they shall  testify against themselves.” I have seen with my own eyes, when a man or a woman has reached the end of the road and they dropped to their knees and prayed with sincerity, solutions always come out of the thin air.  I have seen my grandmother do it, I have seen my mother do it and on every occasion they waded on to firmer and more secured grounds.  This is not a mystery, there is a God who will protect people like Shirlina Nageer and who will crush the demons like who will want to strip her naked. I want every Guyanese woman to think carefully on this issue.  The PPP thinks it has a transport over you and your daughters.  If we make that dastardly mistake of voting for these political charlatans in the PPP again and they win, we shall be condemned to even worst acts of oppression than what Ms. Nageer faced at the hand of Bheri Ramsarran.  The PPP is an old boy’s club of a few bigoted men, widow dressed with a sprinkling of women and Afro-Guyanese here and there. I would also take this opportunity to take to task the custodians of the Hindu culture on the PPP list of candidates. I particularly single out my Hindu sister Ms. Vindhya Vasini Persaud, daughter of the iconic Hindu leader Reepu Demand Persaud, Indra Chanderpaul, wife of a gentleman politician – Navin Chanderpaul and the first lady of Guyana for a few more days, Ms. Deolatchmie Ramotar. Even when there is a whisker of religious blasphemy, they hit roads agitating, however, when a woman is threatened with very un-Hindu actions by their communist colleagues on the PPP list; they remain mute spectators. What a Guyana? This must end. It is now over 72 hours after the act and to date the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha which Ms. Persaud heads has lost its voice on this most evil and un-Hindu of acts. Where are the voices of the Pandits of Guyana?  The Jagmohans; the Sharmas; the Persauds and the Tiwaris. Why this indifference towards this demonic act from a serving Minister of Health in a country that produced a woman President? Sase Singh

FM

 

 

UK High Commissioner criticizes Health Minister for ‘disgraceful’ comments

April 24, 2015 1:05 pm Category: Politics A+ / A-

By Tracey Khan – Drakes

United Kingdom High Commissioner to Guyana, James Gregory Quinn

United Kingdom High Commissioner to Guyana, James Gregory Quinn

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Newly appointed United Kingdom High Commissioner to Guyana, James Gregory Quinn has described the Health Minister’s ‘slap and strip’ comments towards women’s right activist, Sherlina Nageer as “disgraceful.”

During a meeting with the members of the local press on Friday, April 24 at his home, the High Commissioner was frank in sharing his position on the much talked about outburst between Dr Bheri Ramsaran and Nageer.

The incident took place outside the Whim Magistrates’ court on Monday, April 20 when the Health Minister called the women’s rights activist “a piece of sh#t” and an “idiot” who should get out of his face, after she persistently questioned him about the maternal death rate in Guyana.

Health Minister, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran.

Health Minister, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran.

“What the Minister of Health said was disgraceful, the language he used or more importantly the sentiment that it is acceptable to use violence and particularly sexual violence against a woman has got no place whatsoever in the 21st century,” Quinn told reporters.

He further noted that if it was in the United Kingdom, Dr Ramsaran would have been asked to resign from government.

“If that had been a UK Minister who had said that, he would no longer be a UK Minister and he would no longer be a member of the political party,” the High Commissioner said.

When asked whether he was disappointed with how government is handling the matter, he responded: “it’s not really for me to comment how the government here or the President or anybody else have said, although I will note that both ex-president Jagdeo, the Prime Ministerial Candidate and various others have made clear their disappointment in what the Minister said.”

Sherlina Nageer during the protest in front the Ministry of Health. [iNews' Photo]

Sherlina Nageer during the protest in front the Ministry of Health. [iNews’ Photo]

Meanwhile, the Minister’s tirade against the activist continued even after he issued a public apology when another recording surfaced with him labeling Nageer a “miscreant” and that she was in need of “psychiatric help.”

 

The most recent diatribe against Nageer reportedly took place at a meeting of Regional Health Officers at the Main Street Plaza, Georgetown on Wednesday, April 22.

Both recordings have since gone viral.

FM

“If that had been a UK Minister who had said that, he would no longer be a UK Minister and he would no longer be a member of the political party,” the High Commissioner said.

FM

FURTHER TALKS? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? A SLAP ON THE WRIST?

 

President to have “further talks” with Ramsaran over Nageer insults

April 24, 2015 1:46 pm Category: Politics A+ / A-

Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran and President Donald Ramotar

Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran and President Donald Ramotar

[www.inewsguyana.com] – President Donald Ramotar has signalled his intention to have “further talks” with Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran over a recent verbal assault of women’s rights activist, Sherlina Nageer.

The Health Minister launched a scathing verbal onslaught on Nageer on Monday, April 20 outside the Whim Magistrate’s Court where he called the woman “a little piece of sh@t” and also told her that he would slap her “just for fun.”

After Ramsaran would have been widely condemned for his reproachable statements, he issued an apology, but mere hours after was back at it again, this time labelling Nageer as a “miscreant” and someone who is in need of “psychiatric” help.

President Ramotar in a statement on Friday, April 24 said that “the statements and behaviour of the Minister do not reflect the high-standards I have set for Ministerial conduct nor the public’s expectations of an office holder. It is outright disrespectful and improper. I intend to have further discussions with the Minister on this matter.”

Both the US and British Envoys have condemned the Minister’s utterances saying that had that happened in either of their government, the person would have been expected to tender his/her resignation.

FM
Originally Posted by baseman:

PPP will win with such a comfortable margin (54%), they will have the headroom to deal with their internal issues.  That Bheri should be kicked out as a start.

Uncle Harry, I'd like to see things from your point of view, but I can't get my head that far up my ass.

Mitwah
Originally Posted by Conscience:

rear view mirrors are merely a convenience that you glance periodically at.

if you keep looking into your rearview mirror you will definitely crash and die exactly where the PPP is heading.

 

 

Pointblank

No we are giving hands not gabbing hands, or slapping hands.  Don't you see the ads.  Stay on message.

 

The PPP's manifesto says slap the working poor and grind them into the ground, while supplying the parasitic Friends and Family with all the goodies of the nation.

 

Time for Change.  God and the votes are on our side.  "They that be for us are more than they that be against us."

FM
Originally Posted by asj:

US wades into Minister for ‘slap and strip’ threats

April 24, 2015 | By | Filed Under News 
 

- another tape surfaces as pressure mounts for his resignation

Even as he has received criticism from at least one member of the diplomatic corps, dozens of political

Minister of Health, Bheri Ramsaran

Minister of Health, Bheri Ramsaran

commentators and even members of his own party, Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran has once again lashed out at women rights activist, Sherlina Nageer. Mere hours after issuing a public apology for his “harsh words” the previous day, Ramsaran yesterday launched another tirade against Nageer. This time the Health Minister was recorded labeling Nageer a “miscreant,” saying that she was in need of “psychiatric help.” Yesterday, as he addressed a meeting of Regional Health Officers at the Main Street Plaza, Georgetown, Ramsaran, who is also a People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) candidate, was heard on a recording saying “So we have these miscreants who sometimes they are supported by the international community because they are rights activists; right to come spit in my face but not collect two slap, you understand me, or one of my ladies who love me, wreck her up, you understand me?” “Well you know I’m Bheri best, all the ladies like me. Suppose one of my big strong women seh “wuh yuh do we doctor, wuh yuh do dis innocent lil man?’ Wacks! Wacks! Then she’s going to become a hero; some of us will make sure we give her a medal. Right, spit in my face. I don’t know if she got rabies or what, I know she was rabid. That woman needs psychiatric help. She needs psychiatric help,” Ramsaran emphasised in the second recording. The Health Minister has already received condemnation from PPP/C’s Prime Ministerial Candidate

US Charge d’Affaires, Bryan Hunt

US Charge d’Affaires, Bryan Hunt

 

Elisabeth Harper, Education Minister Priya Manickchand, former President Bharrat Jagdeo and the youth and women arms of the APNU+AFC for the first attack against Nageer. US Charge d’Affaires Bryan Hunt is reported to have told online news agency, newssourcegy.com, that such statements have no place in a country like Guyana that has a high rate of domestic violence and sexual and gender-based violence. Hunt was recorded as saying “In a country that has a domestic violence rate as high as Guyana’s and a sexual assault rate as high as Guyana’s, it is downright irresponsible for any senior politician to make the statement to any woman, in public or in private, that the Minister of Health made the other day. It is completely unacceptable.” Hunt went on to state that “there is no possible reason or rationale to threaten sexual violence against anyone, but especially against a woman, given Guyana’s very serious gender-based violence problem”. Though he said he was pleased at the response of Ramsaran’s colleagues who took him to task for his comments, he considered the conduct “quite frankly to be a disgrace.” Hunt explained that while it was important and appropriate for the Minister to apologise for his conduct, “what would have been more appropriate was for him to never have made the statement in the first place”. “Do I think it is enough? I don’t think you can un-ring a bell. I don’t think you can take back the damage

Women’s Rights Activist, Sherlina Nageer

Women’s Rights Activist, Sherlina Nageer

that would have already been done by suggesting that sexual violence is an appropriate response to whatever sort of provocation that the Minister felt he was under.” “I think the damage is much more severe than what the woman’s activist heard or the offence that she took at the remarks. I think it conveys a sense from a senior government official that somehow sexual violence is something that is appropriate to use, appropriate to threaten, and somehow societally acceptable and it’s not. It can’t be,” Hunt told the online agency. The excuse offered by Ramsaran has also been found as unacceptable by the US envoy who made it clear that he does not believe that there is any possible provocation that any woman could have made that would legitimately result in a response in which a senior government official threatens that woman with violence. “The Minister’s conduct was beyond, it was disgraceful…I think the question that should he be asked to resign is one the party has to struggle with internally and I will let them have their internal debates about that.” “Should he resign out of his own volition? I’m not going to prescribe to the Minister what he ought to do, but what I will say is in the United States if one of our candidate officials were to have made that sort of comment, that person would have been expected to resign without question. “I daresay, having had a conversation earlier today with some of my colleagues from the other western missions,that same principle would hold true across any number of countries that a Minister making that type of inappropriate remark for whatever reason would have chosen voluntarily to step down.” “I don’t believe that there is any possible provocation that any woman would have made that would have legitimately resulted in a response in which a senior government official threatens that woman with sexual violence…It was a threat of sexual violence and I can’t imagine what possible provocation could result in that reaction,” Hunt said. A number of non-governmental organisations and activists have issued a call for the Minister to step down from office. Meanwhile, more than 250 persons from across the Caribbean and the diaspora have signed on to the CatchAFyah Caribbean Feminist Network solidarity statement in support of Sherlina Nageer. The body had said that the invocation of “provocation” is frequently used to justify and rationalise men’s fatal violence against women and has crept into state and activist responses to violence. “The language of provocation, just like the denigrating language and threats the Minister directed at Sherlina, is the language of misogyny” the body said. They noted that Nageer was verbally abused for insisting that women’s lives and health matter. “She was threatened with the misogynist and violent acts of public stripping and beating for insisting that governments have a responsibility to ensure women have access to quality sexual and reproductive health services.” The body said it recognised such “abuses of state power as a reflection of hatred of women, an unwillingness to recognise us as fully human and a refusal to treat us as equals. They also reflect the callous disregard elected officials show for the people — boys and girls, women and men — they are meant to serve.”

I tell you all something, thie lil piece of gyal was a material contributor to the PPP losing these elections.

 

God bless her.

 

 

Women’s Rights Activist, Sherlina Nageer

Women’s Rights Activist, Nageer

FM

Add Reply

×
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×