The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday said that the sexual insult directed by a Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall, on February 9th to a female opposition parliamentarian across the floor of the National Assembly should be seen as a watershed moment rather than treated as the routine ‘rough and tumble’ of Parliament.
Dharamlall was heard saying to the MP “You got to get a dildo, that’s what you looking for”. He was not sanctioned by Speaker Manzoor Nadir for the remark nor upbraided by his fellow MPs.
In a statement, the GHRA said that the incident constituted sexual harassment of both the MP in question and indirectly of all female MPs who have to sit and listen to exchanges “which would not be tolerated even in a well-run public bar”. Such behaviour, it said, also undermines the longer-term goal of a Parliament composed equally of males and females.