Nagamootoo’s comment draws wide criticism from MPs
– Manickchand calls on House to distance itself from statements
PPP/C Member of Parliament  and Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has condemned the outburst yesterday by Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament Moses Nagamootoo in the National Assembly, when he confessed to cursing his grandson when the child bothers him with repeated questions and admitted to shouting at the child, saying “shut yo so and so mouth”.
During his presentation on the 2012 budget debate, Nagamootoo, a former PPP/C party member who defected to the AFC, said, “…it is like a child. In the vehicle when I travel from my home, my grandson will say ‘are we there yet? Are we there yet?’  and I would tell he ‘shut yo so and so mouth’.”
The House immediately erupted, and a loud uproar was heard in the chambers as some members were shocked and astounded to hear this coming from the Honourable Member of the House with some members chanting and accusing him of ‘Child Abuse’.
“I find it unfortunate that a leader of the House said something like that for a couple of reasons,” Minister Manickchand told the Chronicle in an invited comment.
“While it is true that we can decide on corporal punishment ourselves, as far as it stands right now, that is we are consulting on where we should go as a country on that matter, but what I find grossly unfortunate is that we don’t speak to children like that,” Manickchand commented, in direct reference to what Nagamootoo said.
She insisted that one shouldn’t speak to children like that, noting, “Children should be encouraged and (saying) ‘shut your so and so’ because I asked ‘are we there yet’ is really shutting down curiosity, shutting down anxiety that might be justified and so on”.
“I don’t want to get involved in how the Member treats his grandchildren or doesn’t treat them…but I think that the fact that that (‘shut your so and so’) has been publicly said ought to be condemned by all,” the minister chided.
“People who say they love children and they have children’s rights in the forefront of their minds – you would know that we have moved as a world from a place where children are seen and not heard to a place where we are actively encouraging their views,” she noted.
Manickchand encouraged all members of the National Assembly to embrace that right of a child to be heard and “not try to shut down views based on this venom that we heard here today.
“And so for me, I think it says to us that we need to be cautious when we speak to our children, so that we don’t impart behaviour that might itself turn out to be negative and so on,” she said.