The National Congress of Women (NCW), the women’s arm of the main opposition PNCR, yesterday registered its disapproval of President Bharrat Jagdeo’s reported treatment of former First Lady Varshnie Singh.
In a statement, the NCW urged all other women’s organisations, including the PPP’s women’s arm, the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO), to call on the head of state to uphold the constitution and the laws of the land by paying over her entitled share of the marital property, and also to give full recognition and respect to Singh.
“The NCW empathises and sympathises with this dear mistreated lady, whose only crime seems to be that she wanted to work with her husband `to move Guyana forward’”, it said, referring to comments made by the former First Lady at a press conference on Tuesday.
Singh told reporters that she was a victim of what she called “hi-tech domestic violence,” charging that she did not receive proper maintenance or care during the marriage. Since their separation in 2006, the couple have been working towards a settlement. Singh said that the President has threatened that if she does not agree to a $5M divorce settlement, he and the government would block her plans for the construction of a children’s hospital at Morakai. She received a payment of $1M in 2007 but has appealed for a proper settlement as well as other concessions.
However, President Jagdeo has said the division of assets 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. He said he is prepared to meet all his obligations to her provided for by the laws of Guyana, but emphasised 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.
According to the NCW, the Constitution provides for a woman, who has shared a marital relationship-legal or common-law-to benefit if there is a breakdown in the relationship. It noted that the Married Persons (Property) Amendment Act of 1990 stipulates that in the division of property, a woman, who lived with her husband for five years in a legal marriage and/or seven years in a common-law marriage, is entitled to her share of property which was acquired during the marriage.
Singh had said in her statement that the President earns $200,000 per month “of which I have not seen a dollar for most of my married life. He recently built a house which I understand is being rented and now he has $10M left” of which he is offering her half. She said she received $1M in 2007 from the President and he said that the money was to pay rent for a year and to buy a middle income house lot which cost $500,000.
She said she paid for the lot but could not find anywhere to rent for that budget and eventually had to use the rest of the money to travel to the UK to raise funds to pay off the hospital bill for Kids First Fund.
Given the government’s support for campaigns against domestic violence, the NCW said it was amazed by Singh’s allegations. “If the allegations made by [her] are true, then the NCW is appalled at the behaviour of the Head of State, who appears to be only ‘talking the talk and not walking the walk,” it said. The President had said that Singh’s account of events was one-sided but that he would not be drawn into a public contest.
