Buckling under pressure, President Donald Ramotar yesterday fired Dr Bheri Ramsaran as Minister of Health more than a week after a recording emerged of him verbally abusing activist Sherlina Nageer who yesterday labelled the sacking an “elections time gimmick”.
Nageer yesterday called for similar action be taken against Attorney-General Anil Nandlall.
President Ramotar had come under tremendous pressure following Ramsaran’s abusive remarks in which he threatened to have Nageer stripped and slapped and called her a “piece of shit.” Numerous local organisations as well as the representatives of the US, Britain and Canada—all publicly condemned the former minister’s remarks. The pressure began to mount after a recording of the exchange began circulating and Ramsaran issued an apology in which he claimed to have been provoked into anger and uttering harsh words which he regretted. However, the next day, the minister was recorded calling Nageer a “miscreant,” accusing her of spitting on him and saying she was in need of psychiatric help. He was speaking to Regional Health Officers.
“Minister Bheri Ramsaran has since been relieved of his Ministerial duties following a meeting with the President. The President reiterates his outrage at the verbal outbursts and insults uttered by the Minister recently,” a statement from Office of the President said yesterday revealing that Public Service Minister Dr Jennifer Westford is now acting in his stead.
Ramsaran’s removal is the highest profile sacking since the PPP/C parted ways with then Finance Minister Asgar Ally and replaced him with his junior minister, Bharrat Jagdeo.
“Some people are celebrating but we are not. There are less than two weeks before elections; it is clear to me and others that this is an elections time gimmick,” Nageer said when contacted yesterday after the statement was issued.
“I think the PPP lost some ground in their traditional support base and this is an attempt to regain some of that ground. We are not celebrating. We not appeased. And we are not fooled,” she said emphatically.
She and some other women continued their protest action outside the former minister’s Brickdam office calling for him not to be returned to any public office regardless of the results of the May 11 elections.
Two days after the recording was made public, President Ramotar had condemned Ramsaran’s statements and said he would have had further talks with the former minister. But many said it was not enough and called for him to show real leadership by firing Ramsaran and sending a clear message that the abuse of any woman is wrong.
On April 20, Ramsaran was recorded verbally abusing Nageer, saying he would slap her for the fun of it and have her stripped in a public place.
Ramsaran had journeyed to Whim to support former president Jagdeo, who was expected to attend court there to answer a private criminal charge filed against him by attorney Christopher Ram. The confrontation occurred after the minister labelled Ram a “wife beater” while being interviewed by reporters. Nageer interjected and proceeded to confront him about the deaths of women and children in the health care system under his watch.
At this point Ramsaran could be heard calling Nageer a little “piece of shit” and an “idiot” before asking her to get out of his face.
Medical council
Yesterday Nageer also stated that it was not the end of the matter, pointing out that she had filed a complaint with the Crime Chief on April 27, in which she said that at no time did she raise her voice, spit at or otherwise threaten Ramsaran.
“… Ramsaran, however advanced towards me, raising his hands. I moved back and put up my own hand defensively at this point. (Most of the rest of the time however, my hands were clasped behind my back). I felt threatened by Mr Ramsaran, as if he wanted to hit me,” Nageer charged in the statement.
Yesterday she revealed that she would also be writing a letter to the Medical Council of Guyana detailing Ramsaran’s abuse of her as he is a medical doctor and may go into private practice.
She pointed out that Ramsaran is just one of many public officials who have abused their offices and if the President really cared he would have fired Nandall as well. The attorney-general, was heard on tape soliciting the sexual favours of a young female for his uncle, among other things, during a conversation with Kaieteur News reporter Leonard Gildarie.
Nageer and others will protest outside Nandlall’s office today between 1pm and 3pm.
Describing Ramsaran’s sacking as a good start to holding public officials accountable, co-chair of the Partners for Peace and Development Roxanne Myers called for further actions on all public officials who have been caught up in public scandals in one way or the other. She said she looks forward to Ramsaran not being appointed to any public office—not even as a Member of Parliament—whether the PPP/C loses or wins the May 11 elections.
She called for the same action to be taken as it relates to Nandlall adding that this would send a signal about how serious the party is as regards addressing issues affecting women.
“I am looking forward to the President cleaning up, so to speak,” she told this newspaper.
Meantime, Help & Shelter member Danuta Radzik said that while the sacking of Ramsaran took a while, in the end it was the right thing to do.
She expressed the hope that the police would bring criminal charges against Ramsaran as there is no uncertainty that the former minister abused and threatened Nageer, both of which are criminal offences under the laws of Guyana.
“We hope those charges will be brought against the former minister, if not there is a possibility that private criminal charges can be instituted. A very strong message should be sent to all persons in leadership positions that it is not acceptable that they would use their position to abuse any member of the public and get away with it,” she stressed.
Radzik said these kinds of instances have been happening over and over and while they are glad Ramsaran has been sacked, she, like others, feel the same should happen with Nandlall whose act of soliciting sexual favours is criminal
“This abuse of women has to stop. Not because you are a leader that absolves you from committing a crime. Leaders must put their words to action, that the rights of women would be respected,” Radzik said. She surmised that if it were an ordinary citizen that person would have been charged.
Radzik also called for the former minister to go through a period of rehabilitation since the issue is now public and after that period he should be assessed to ascertain that he no longer exhibits such abusive behaviour. She also called for some form of a code of conduct for how public officials should comport themselves in office, with sanctions to be applied if it is broken.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) in a statement said while it welcomes the move by the President it comes at a time “when the PPP is desperately seeking every vote in society and women are considered a critical demographic.
“As such this must be seen for what it is, another cheap political exercise because Dr Ramsaran will receive his salary for the month and retain access to all state privileges, inclusive of vehicles for which taxpayers will continue to shoulder the burden,” the GTUC said in a statement.
According to the statement, to demonstrate that it is not another exercise in cheap politicking, the President must now move to remove Ramsaran’s name from the List of Electors so that after May 11, whether the PPP wins or loses he is not given another chance to enter the National Assembly as a representative of the people.
The Guyana Bar Association, the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers and the Justice Institute were the three latest organisations that condemned the minister’s actions and called on Tuesday for him to be fired. Others who condemned his statements were: the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), the Women & Gender Equality Commission, Red Thread, Guyana Trans United and the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) among others along with a number of private citizens who had written letters expressing their disgust at Ramsaran’s action.
Ramsaran’s recording came on the heels of one involving the President himself. In that recording Ramotar was heard calling an Aishalton teacher “stupid” during a public meeting in Region Nine. Following the release of the recording, the Office of the President (OP) had stated that the contents of the recording would have to be authenticated.
The recording had been released 27 days after John Adams alleged that he was slapped by a presidential guard after he heckled the president during a speech at the same event.
In the recording, the President was heard bashing the opposition. There was a brief gap before he was heard saying, “You don’t know anything ’bout Jagdeo. If he been hey, he might have slap yuh cause yuh stupid.”
Another recording the government had promised to authenticate was one involving Nandlall, who apart from soliciting sexual favours for his uncle, was overheard speaking about his knowledge of criminal activity and his use of government funds for personal expenditure. Nandlall has not denied that it was his voice on the recording and had said that the conversation was a private one between himself and a longtime friend. There has been no word on any efforts to authenticate the two recordings.
