Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran’s disgraceful and horrendous abuse of rights activist Sherlina Nageer on the road outside the Whim Magistrate’s Court on Monday was revolting and inexcusable. Dr Ramsaran’s subsequent attempt at an apology fell far short and can no way be interpreted as a genuine expression of regret.
In the short statement he issued on Tuesday, Dr Ramsaran’s position was that he was “provoked into anger”. If that is to be believed then it must also be accepted that Dr Ramsaran has anger issues. In truth, he must have been on an extremely short fuse. It took just three short questions from Ms Nageer—a matter of a few seconds, in fact—for the minister to shout at her, “Shut yuh mouth and get out my face…” This was in response to Ms Nageer asking him what he was doing at Whim protesting when he should be doing his job as Minister of Health.
Ms Nageer’s question was on point and she had every right to ask it as a citizen of Guyana. Dr Ramsaran accused her of rudely interrupting his interview with two journalists, but he could have chosen not to engage her. He could also have offered to speak to her after he was finished with the reporters. Instead, Dr Ramsaran chose to hand Ms Nageer a verbal slap down that completely disrespected her and all of the women in Guyana.
Dr Ramsaran’s tirade at Ms Nageer went very quickly from unpleasant to downright nasty. The minister must have been cognizant that he was not only being recorded by the two reporters who were interviewing him but that there were several persons in the immediate vicinity who could hear him. Yet, the only way in which he restrained himself, and barely, was by telling Ms Nageer to “F-off”, rather than using the complete word. But no one viewing the minister’s posture and listening to the venom in his tone could doubt what that ‘F’ meant.
Dr Ramsaran had earlier called Ms Nageer an “idiot” and minutes later, he referred to her as a “little piece of shit.” All this, because she called him out on his record as minister of health, which has been abysmal. The issues over which Ms Nageer sought to engage Dr Ramsaran did not begin under his watch, but they have escalated. Maternal deaths, in particular, have increased to the point where Guyana is no longer in a position to meet this year’s Millennium Development Goal 5 A, which is to reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
It is Dr Ramsaran’s right to attempt to defend his record. However, as a government official answerable to the public, he has no right to spew invective at citizens when challenged. The minister had told Ms Nageer that he was at Whim as a candidate on the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) list. Is that how Dr Ramsaran hopes to win votes for his party? By subjecting women to verbal abuse? His vitriolic attack on Ms Nageer smacks of arrogance and points to a refusal to be held accountable for the failures in the health sector.
It must be noted that the PPP has been in cuss-down mode before its campaign began in earnest. It began with President Donald Ramotar’s public abuse of a resident of Aishalton on December 3, 2014. “You don’t know anything ’bout Jagdeo, if he been hey he might have slap yuh cause yuh stupid,” Mr Ramotar had told the resident at a public meeting, in response to heckling comments made regarding former president Bharrat Jagdeo.
Mr Jagdeo, for his part, lowered the bar when he began speaking at campaign rallies around the country. His virulent language certainly gives credibility to Mr Ramotar’s statement.
But none of the above is as significant or as damning as what Dr Ramsaran said after Ms Nageer had moved out of earshot and was no longer interrupting or provoking him. It was then that he made threats which could only be construed as dangerous. “I would slap her ass you know…, just for the fun… I can have some of my women strip her here,” the health minister was overheard saying. It was one thing for Minister Ramsaran to claim that he was provoked into verbally abusing Ms Nageer; it is quite another for him to threaten to personally harm her after the fact.
It was distinctly disturbing that two members of the media stood there throughout the entire thing and neither called out the minister on either his abuse of or threats towards Ms Nageer. Instead, amazingly, both resumed their interview with him as if nothing had happened.
Worse still, was the allegation later made by one of them that the entire incident had been planned to “bait” the minister into hurling nasty insults, when in fact he had “the utmost respect for women.”
This is tantamount to blaming Ms Nageer for the doctor’s appalling roadside manner. It is the go-to excuse used by abusers everywhere and the same one employed by the minister.
But there is no excusing Dr Ramsaran’s scurrilous language and condemnation of it is not enough. Dr Ramsaran should resign his post as health minister and withdraw his candidacy; or else he should be fired. He is unfit for public office.
