President Irfaan Ali yesterday said that there have been no deliberations on the possible re-employment of Nigel Dharamlall by government nor has the former minister who resigned following rape allegations by a 16-year-old girl asked for new job considerations.
“In the course of natural justice, the system that supports natural justice must be allowed to work and that is what the President did. Whether the minister who is a citizen will have any (further) work in government is not something I have considered nor has he requested, at this moment,” Ali yesterday said at a press conference at the Office of the President, in response to questions from Stabroek News.
During the press engagement which saw him speak on a number of issues for over an hour, the President defended his actions in handling the case, as he emphasised that he and his government put the rights of especially children and women as priority in policy making, plans, and decisions.
And given that when he had announced Dharamlall’s resignation from Trinidad he made no mention of the teenaged complainant in the case, Ali was also asked by Stabroek News about that omission.
“First of all, I want to make it very clear that children and women and their welfare are of utmost importance to me and this government. There is absolutely, absolutely, no time in which this government will put the welfare of women and children on second burner or third burner. The welfare of women and children are of utmost importance to us. At that time, I was dealing specifically with [the] state agency that made a pronouncement [Director of Public Prosecutions] and my consequential action, having heard from the minister. That is all there is. I have complete respect and regard for children and women. They are at top of my priority and this government’s priority,” the President stressed.
And given that Ali had made mention of Dharamlall’s commitment to working with government and the party, the President said that it was for the PPP/C’s members to decide on Dharamlall’s future in the party.
“The leadership of this party is decided by the members of this party at a congress. Every member is elected. I am coming to your [question] but I want to make this point very clearly. We have to follow rules we have to follow systems and I am working as President of Guyana, to build systems that serve the population. Systems in which the population can find honour in being part of and systems through which we can trust,” he said.
In the Dharamlall case, Ali said that he believes that the system has worked. “…I am saying to you that in the course of natural justice, the justice system has worked.”
When questioned by Newssourcegy if his government will heed the calls from civil society for an independent investigation, covering the time the rape allegation was reported right up to the DPP’s decision, Ali bristled and dismissed it as being tantamount to not trusting the country’s legal systems.
“First of all, I think it’s insulting to say that our system is not independent. From day one, the President of Guyana made it clear that the system will be allowed to work. In every country there is a system, starting with the Child Care and Protection Agency, the Human Service [Ministry], Blossom [Inc.], the police, the DPP, these are all independent agencies. These are all independent agencies that are working not only in Nigel Dharamlall’s case but working in many other cases in the country”, Ali said.
And hinting at the double standards in reporting on sexual offences involving politicians, the President told the reporter that the reporting on similar matters against opposition persons were not with the same intensity.
“These are the same agencies that existed when allegations were made against former ministers of other governments. I never heard that question from you then. I never heard it from you. I asked you to refer to them too; give those examples,” he contended.
Outcome
He said in the Dharamlall case, he did not intervene and waited for the outcome to make his decisions. “We have to allow the systems in the country to work. The President did not intervene in the investigation. The President did not do the investigation. These are independent agencies, set up in accordance with the Constitution and rule of law of the country.
As President, and as a government, we have to have trust in our institutions. We have to have trust in our institutions,” he emphasized.
In the aftermath of the decision by the DPP not to recommend a charge Dharamlall, the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) called for an independent probe of all the agencies which played a part in this decision.
The APA said that Indigenous peoples in Guyana have witnessed their rights being trampled upon by the very people who are tasked with protecting those rights. It noted that the manner in which the ‘investigation’ was conducted, “cements the fact that Indigenous peoples are not equal in the eyes of Guyana’s justice system.”
The APA says it remains convinced that the end goal of this ‘investigation’ was never the delivery of justice but rather to save face and avoid further humiliation. “The mere fact that President Irfaan Ali failed to take concrete action against Dharamlall when the allegations surfaced speaks volumes about the government’s blatant disregard for the gravity of the accusation levelled against his minister.”
Challenging the President to say why he did not ask Dharamlall to proceed on leave when the allegations surfaced rather than waiting until Dharamlall himself requested to be sent on administrative leave, it said questions should be answered. It also wanted the President to say whether Dharamlall was paid his salary and other ministerial allowances afforded to him during the time he was on administrative leave, as well as explain why he did not remove Dharamlall from his Cabinet as a Member of Parliament and instead allowed him to resign.
The APA reminded that it has been consistent in its call for the protection of the child at the centre of this investigation, and that those calls have fallen on deaf ears. “What we have seen is the unsurmountable pressure meted out to the child to break her spirit and frustrate her to the extent that she no longer wants to pursue the matter. Sadly, we have all watched that successfully play out, which led to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recommending that no criminal charges should be brought against Dharamlall.”
As such, the association called on all Guyanese to advocate for an independent probe into the conduct of the Guyana Police Force, the Office of the DPP, the Childcare and Protection Agency, and others that facilitated the “unprofessional conduct” of the investigators in this matter. “It is appalling that all those agencies worked against the best interests of the child in this matter.”
Dharamlall is the first ministerial casualty of the nearly three-year-old Ali administration and his departure comes amid months of problems for the government including a fire at a Mahdia dorm in May that claimed the lives of 20 children and which has also raised questions about accountability at ministerial and cabinet level.
The allegation of rape against Dharamlall would likely have presented thorny questions for the administration from some of its main bilateral and multilateral international partners given the heightened focus against abuse of women and girls.
