Dear Editor,
We recognise visiting Voting Rights expert Marcia Johnson-Blanco, a Linden born American. This daughter of Linden Region 10 is co-director of the Lawyers’ Committee Voting Rights Project and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Centre. Ms. Johnson-Blanco, it is said, noted a lot of people have an ingrained cultural idea that they should be loyal to a party even though they don’t represent your interest. Young people need to be activists if they want solutions to their problems. She noted that Guyana is a young country and can only mature if its women and youth find their voices.
We are pleased to announce that we are on the right path, because the youth and women of Region 10 are politically educated, energised and mobilised! We have been doing this for our young people in this Region and will continue to do this after May 11th. For our work in Region 10 is not finished. The business of empowering the People of Region 10 at every level of political decision-making will continue. We will have a say, and nothing will stop us. Come Monday 11th May, Region 10 is voting like a boss! We are voting for the APNU+AFC! Not for the cup.
I take note of the pathetic plea of Nadira Jagan-Brancier, daughter of the late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Mrs. Janet Jagan- appealing for supporters of the PPP to vote for the cup. Nadira Jagan-Brancier previously called on the PPP to return to the basics, she said “get back to being a non-corruptible party.” Ms. Jagan-Brancier said that if the leaders don’t show the moral values then people won’t do it. I don’t understand Nadira because if she knows the current leadership in the PPP is corrupted how she expects them to change when supporters keep rewarding their corrupt behaviour by voting for them?
Nadira’s concern is not the people of Guyana. It is not for an end to the suffering, corruption and crime. It is to keep the corrupt officials in government because they come from her father’s party. Ms. Jagan-Brancier wants Guyanese to stay with the PPP because of a man who died many years ago while we are here suffering under the party that is his legacy with all the good, bad and indifferent. Only the bad obvious now and this election is no invocation of the dead. It is no jumbie jamboree.
This election is about Donald Ramotar & Bharrat Jagdeo versus David Granger and Moses Nagamootoo. Guyana moving forward out of the wilderness, out of the corruption on May 11th with two highly blessed and favoured men. When a nation has unjust leaders you kick them out of government where they cannot be unjust anymore. You teach them a lesson with the vote.
Women, we know the saying “the hands that rock the cradle rule the world” We don’t believe in rulers, because we know when you have rulers you have subjects. The 21st century woman is not a subject. 21st century women want to partner with their menfolk to manage the world and better take care of our children!
The PPP/C government claims to care about women but the record has proven otherwise. Let us look at the PPP’s totem pole for this proof of disregard for women. From the top of the PPP’s totem pole, the sad face of Ms Varshnie Singh-Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo’s common law wife- is there. Below her is the prime ministerial candidate Mrs. Elisabeth Harper, another female face, this time without a mouth.
And below Mrs. Harper is yet another female face with the horn of a feral being, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand. It was Dr. Roger Luncheon who proudly proclaimed her lack of diplomatic decorum as a feral blast. And below Ms. Manickchand’s face on the totem pole are a number of faceless females preparing to strip another female. These are not empowered women. For who is not abused is used as a convenient tool of the men in the PPP either as window dressing, to be seen and not heard, to behave like a wild animal in the presence of the diplomatic community, and those who are geared for clandestine “strip naked” violence against fellow Guyanese.
We only have to look and see the treatment meted out to Ms. Sherlina Nageer to see the dangers that our women face and are subjected to if they only dare to simply ask a minister of the government about the job they are being paid to do and are performing very poorly. And don’t look to the president for help because he doesn’t have our back. He is sympathetic with the abuser.
Your Power is Your Vote. Come Monday 11th May we must vote the PPP out! We have to return Guyana to a land where law and order take precedence and in which all are subjected to. We have to return Guyana to a place where our young people can grow and develop without fear of being trafficked, raped, wantonly abused, violated and with no jobs, therefore seeking refuge in foreign countries instead of staying and serving the land of their birth.
We have to make the Guyana woman not the symbol of government abuse and threat, but a woman who is respected and able to reach her full potential under a caring supportive government. We all deserve to live under a government that will allow us to wear our clothes without fear of being stripped or slapped for the fun of it. We have to vote the PPP out on Monday 11th May. We have to get Mr. Jagdeo and Mr. Ramotar out.
The people of Region 10 must continue to be driven by the need to protect our children, our family and therefore we must advocate for the change we want to see. We must continue the fight to realise our 2012 Agreement. We must continue the fight to improve our lives and the lives of our loved ones
My struggle in Region 10 will continue and I am encouraging every single woman, wherever you are, to get up, stand up, stand up for your rights. Advocate! Agitate! Together let us frustrate the efforts of those who seek to dominate, control and suppress us! A victory for APNU+AFC is a victory for you! May 11th is an investment in you and your loved ones. Don’t throw away this investment, I plead with you.
Yours faithfully,
Vanessa Kissoon
