-says she was victim of ‘hi-tech domestic violence’

Former First Lady Varshnie Singh yesterday accused President Bharrat Jagdeo of pursuing a vendetta against her and sidelining her children’s charity for showing up the inadequacies of the government’s work.

Singh broke her silence on their nine-year union at a press conference at the Pegasus Hotel, saying that she did not receive proper maintenance or care during the marriage, while appealing for the right to retain courtesies and use of overseas missions for fundraising, duty-free concessions and land for the construction of a special children’s hospital at Morakai.  She yesterday announced the temporary closure of Kids First Fund, the charity she set up to help children in need of overseas medical aid as well as her impending resignation from the National Steering Committee Against Child Labour, saying she has been forced to move back to the UK to earn a living and properly fund the organisation. “This is not what I want to do, as Guyana is my home and I have a right to live and work here,” she explained, adding that she had no choice as a result of the discrimination she has suffered at the hands of the Presidents and his agents. “I have suffered for the past decade and I want to move on but I don’t have the resources and cooperation to do so,” she added, while urging that there be a change in the law to make provisions for the First Lady.

Singh went public yesterday, a day after she was barred from entering State House, the official residence of the President. She told reporters at the mid-morning news conference that she had no clothing apart from what she was wearing at the time.

The couple split in 2007 and have been working out a settlement since then.

In a statement issued last evening, President Jagdeo, however, denied some of the claims, while stating his unwillingness to get into a public contest over what he said a one-sided recount of their period together. With Singh accepting there is no constitutional or statutory position of First Lady, Jagdeo noted that whatever benefit she received was solely because of her marriage to him. As a result, he said it would have posed an ethical dilemma and he questioned the example he was setting if they separated and she continued to have access to the State resources for her private work. “I wish her well in the future and I just want to go on with my life,” he said.

According to Singh, during the marriage she did not receive proper maintenance of care. She said that for the past ten years she has been “begging” the President for assistance but has not received anything. As a result, she has had to resort to depending on her parents who are pensioners and other family members for money, clothing and other support. Her food, she said, is taken care of by an aunt who has a shop. “It is shameful at this stage of my life to regress to having my parents support me,” she said. “It is funny and sad to hear the politicians talk about the campaign against domestic violence, investing millions to stamp it out etc when what I am experiencing is hi-tech domestic violence and persecution. Our president is using his office and state resources including Ministers unprofessionally to disadvantage a woman.” Since the split, she said the President has said if she does not agree to a $5M divorce settlement, he and the government would block her plans for the construction of Morakai hospital. She received $1M in 2007, which she said the President said was to pay her rent for a year and to buy a middle income house lot at a cost of $500,000. While she paid for the lot she has been unable to find anywhere to rent and she used the money for fundraising activities related to the Kids First Fund.

Singh called the First Lady’s Office a “myth” that she created out of a need, advocating on the behalf of the voiceless without government funding or assistance. She, however, noted that the First Lady of every country in the world is treated with respect, even if they never do anything other than cut ribbons and kiss babies’ heads. She noted that she received no payment for her work and only on four occasions did she receive a stipend for travels overseas. Additionally, she was not allowed to attend any First Lady’s Conference. “This is the first country I have heard of where the First Lady is proactive, doing good for the nation but gets penalised because her husband is President and finds her work to help the same people he swore to defend  and represent ‘showing up the inadequacies of his government’ and therefore made me his enemy.”

She said her work with the Kids First Fund had been an issue of contention from the inception and she accused President Jagdeo of hindering its work at all turns. The location of Kids First Fund’s office moved from place to place since, upon asking the President to use a room at Office of the President, he allegedly said that OP belonged to him and there was no room for her. The office has subsequently moved to five locations where no rent or overhead fees were required. Additionally, overseas trips for the fund were not deemed “official” and she was denied official courtesies, Singh said. As a result, she stayed with relatives who covered her accommodation, transport and food. Singh was given an opportunity to address 400 doctors at the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in the US and they had indicated their willingness to come to Guyana to perform free surgeries and clinics. The President, according to her, objected though her travel had been booked and approved. In addition to these factors Singh said that the vehicle she used had been taken away without explanation.  In April 2008 Singh related, as the Chairperson of the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) she was scheduled to travel to the UN and was given her ticket by UNICEF and would stay with relatives only to find out that the day before her name was mysteriously removed from the list of delegates.

Singh also said that propaganda was used to peddle lies about her and her work. She recalled that after the Lusignan massacre last year, when she tried to get the families of victims to organise a peace rally. She explained that she met PNCR leader Robert Corbin and his wife in one of the victim’s yards and he commended her on her work. Later the same day, she heard that she was collaborating with the PNC and broadcaster CN Sharma to bring down the government and was organising a protest march. Two friends of the President approached her to verify the claims. She said, “Running in my veins is the blood of a patriot; I have deep love for this nation for humanity in general, regardless of race, religion and political affiliation. To demand excellence in effort and integrity and justice from our elected officials doesn’t make me anti-government or anti-party or pro-opposition. It makes me pro-Guyana. This is my right as a citizen of a great nation to expect nothing less and I have no apology to make for this.”

The two were married according to Hindu rites in 1998 and Jagdeo assumed the presidency the following year. The couple split after almost nine years together, during which time there was continuous speculation of tense relations between them. Singh said the couple had a deal before the marriage to work together to move the country forward. But according to her, the problems began a week after, when she was locked out of their bedroom. “From then on, it was one problem after another, nothing I could do was ever right,” she explained. “Any attempts to find out what went wrong, why he stopped talking to me, why he was so mean, were met with long silences which lasted days on end and I got no answers.”

She added “I left to go to the UK to complete my studies and to get away from the loveless and stressful life I found myself in. I told Bharrat that I was not happy and didn’t want to live like this, that we should go our separate ways. He did not want to do so and kept telling me it would be different and that he was sorry. It sounded fine on the phone but when we were together it all went terribly wrong.

“Later he told me he would become President and asked me to come for the swearing in. I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea. I did attend the ceremony not wanting to upset his special day. I also tried to give our relationship another chance. Still nothing improved, it just got worse”.

After years in this situation, she said she tried to get the President to agree to an amicable split but she said he refused cooperate and entertain any dialogue until after the last general election, in 2006. She said that for a two year period, she was denied access to the Presidential apartment at State House. If she was not home by 6pm, she explained, the apartment door would be locked with the latch from the inside so she could not open it with her key: “When I was locked out, I would have to spend the night on a sofa on the first floor, without a sheet, get murdered by mosquitoes, praying for the night to pass quickly so I could get into my room bathe and get to office, or to my public engagements etc.” She added that even if she were home before the time, she would simply be in her own room by herself, reading and listening to music. She later relocated to an empty guest bedroom on the opposite side of house that did not require going into the President’s apartment. “We were two people living separately under one roof,” Singh said.

On January 5, 2009, Singh said she received a letter from the President’s lawyer Anil Nandlall,  requesting that she vacate State House within 48 hours. She said she asked to keep the room until she returned from overseas fundraising activities on April 1, after which she would move out. On Monday, when she returned to State House she was denied access on the President’s instructions.

But last evening President Jagdeo, explained that it was expected that Singh would have left State House, when they announced their separation. He pointed out that at the end of his tenure as President in 2011 he would also have to leave the residence. He explained that he was “forced” to make a “painful decision” and take steps to have Singh leave, since she refused to do so despite numerous promises.

The President stressed that he made it clear to her on more than one occasion that the resources of the State could not be used to support the work of the Kids First Fund, a private charity, no matter how laudable its efforts. “…I sought to keep a certain distance from it so as to avoid accusations that the Fund was benefiting from the patronage of the State because of the presence of my wife,” Jagdeo said, adding that it would be unethical for him to allow it. “She was therefore free to undertake her work with the clear understanding, as she acknowledges, that there were to be no special favours involved.”

On the division of assets, Jagdeo said the issue was jointly discussed with his lawyer and he showed her copies of his declaration of income and assets to the Integrity Commission over the period that they were together. “I am prepared to meet all my obligations to her provided for by the laws of Guyana,” he declared, adding that he could not meet her demands to hand over Government lands and other assets and provide duty and VAT-free concessions as part of the settlement. He said Singh could access these as any other eligible Guyanese citizen.