The children of Guyana are watching you, Minister Manickchand
Dear Editor,
Recent comments made by the Minister of Education Priya Manikchand underscore a grave lack of understanding or concern by the Minister for the office she holds. To pointedly make a comment to suggest or infer that another person is, or has knowledge of another who was involved in the criminal and immoral act of committing rape, is irresponsible, wicked and out of place. Mind you, the minister’s irresponsible comments took place in the National Assembly, the legislature.
What is even worse is that Minister Manickchand has decided that she will use her comment to launch a political campaign, apparently in the aid of rape victims. This action is deceitful, disrespectful to rape victims and a lawless assault on the intelligence of the masses. I denounce this ploy and urge the minister to do what is right, at least for the children of this nation.
I want to commend the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman, for taking the stance he took against the Minister, who despite given an opportunity to apologize for her comments, refused to apologize to APNU MP Jaipaul Sharma, for the comments she hurled at him.
It was very disappointing to learn that Mrs. Manickchand, rather than heeding the Speaker’s advice to withdraw the comment and offer an apology, decided that she will play the “spoil brat” and flaunt her arrogance at the Speaker, and refused to comply with his order. It is clear that the minister has decided that she prefers not to speak in the National Assembly rather than apologize to her colleague for her irresponsible comments. What immaturity and arrogance! I guess the Guyanese people will not hear from the minister on the budgetary allocations for her ministry.
It is truly unfortunate that the Ministry of Education in Guyana is headed by someone with the kind of disrespectful, dismissive and reckless attitude as Mrs. Manickchand. Her action has left much to be desired in the education system.
Very often we blame our children for acting in certain inappropriate ways, for being reckless, for hurling insulting and damaging comments at each other, for fighting in school, among other things, but how can we ask of them to do that which we ourselves do and condone. Manickchand’s action reflects a lack of concern for the office she holds and the children of this country. Her arrogance may explain why almost on a daily basis, video clips are splashed on various social media networks of students in their school uniform fighting on the desk tops in the classroom and in the public view.
Manickchand must know that her comments belong to that era which has long gone. It is time that public officials hold themselves well and think about those they expect to lead before they act. Manickchand should not only apologize to Mr. Jaipaul Sharma, but she should also apologize to the Speaker of the National Assembly, the children, parents and her colleagues in the parliament. Guyanese children deserves better.
I wonder how Manickchand would feel if a teacher asks a student who was disrespectful to another to apologize to that other student, but the disrespectful student refuses. Our children are watching. If Manickchand was mature and not as arrogant as she projected herself, in the situation, she would have acted on the Speaker’s directive, if only for the children, but I guess she is the Minister of Education! How sad!
Lurlene Nestor
