The Sexual Offences Act – and enforcement
Assenting to the Sexual Offences Bill, President Bharrat Jagdeo adjured all stakeholders to go after the predators, despite their positions, influence, or wealth, with the same energy that was displayed in advocating for the Bill to be enacted.
Women and children have been traditional targets of sexual predators from time immemorial, and their voices have screamed silently for ages against inhumane abuses, as the President said, “without recourse to justice.”
Sex sells – and the world has become highly materialistic, when even mothers are selling their children, some little more than babies, for $2,000 a week, to sexual predators who rank among billionaires; and some for a joint.  Such mothers should be jailed right alongside the perverts.  They are even more culpable, because mothers are supposed to be the ultimate protectors.
Fastidious women who refuse to engage in illicit activities with male counterparts or functional superiors are treated as abnormal and disrespected as freaks, becoming the butt of jokes by men, and even women, and victimized by bosses.
But the worst betrayal of the vulnerable are instances where women and children are preyed upon by those whom they trust to protect them – and yes, husbands rape wives, sometimes in the most brutal fashion.
And the little children:  How do they tell of their pain, which they themselves cannot comprehend?  How does an adult male justify having sexual relations with a seven-year-old girl – or boy, for that matter?  Even worse, how does an adult male even contemplate penetrating the body of a baby?  This is tantamount to murder. But this is a scenario that is being played out with unrelenting continuum across the land, and most cases go unreported to protect the predators who, most times, are the breadwinners of the family.
It should be the proudest moment of a father’s life to give his daughter away in marriage – Indians call it Khanyadaan.  Yet there are many fathers who commit the most unspeakable acts against their daughters, sometimes with the complicity of their mothers.
Women’s sexuality should be inviolable, and children certainly should not be viewed as objects of lust; yet some very influential men in society are guilty of some of the most heinous sexual and sex-related crimes, with no repercussions, mainly because they are influential and wealthy and their high-priced lawyers get them off on what the President describes as technicalities.
Currently there are two very influential men who have escaped, time and again, consequences of nefarious actions.  These men dabble in politics, so when their actions in the dark comes to light, they scream that they are being victimized because of political motivation.
They feel that their social status precludes them from prosecution – and they have been proven right in the past.
President Jagdeo was very restrained in addressing the proclivity of the judiciary to prejudicially skew the scales of justice, but the records are there to prove the reality.
One voyeur, who was caught red-handed by the police, who found cameras hidden in the home of a female tenant, was left to go free on minimal bail and even to leave the jurisdiction while there are serious charges pending against him.  In his initial statement he admitted to having placed the cameras in the young lady’s apartment, with an explanation that changes every day.
Subsequently, presumably after consultation with his political colleagues, he denied knowledge of the cameras and claimed that they were ‘planted’ to fabricate evidence against him.
But a letter from his own son exposed his proclivity for shady actions, especially in business and otherwise.  He speaks about “our people”; but he jumps from bandwagon to bandwagon, establishing relationships with whatever political organization will open their doors to him.
The police say they are investigating before they lay charges.  Hello!  This man admitted in a statement to the police that he placed cameras in a tenant’s apartment.  This is, at the very least, voyeurism – clandestinely observing (or recording someone in their most private and intimate moments) which I am sure is against the law.
The police found those cameras.  No outsider could have installed those cameras without being noticed, so why was this gentleman not charged?
But in all these instances involving these paedophiles and sexual perverts the victims are further victimized and traumatized by the law, the media, society, and the perverts themselves.
It was heartening to many victims who have suffered from being judged in the media because someone is a friend of the media owner, or the editor, that President Jagdeo has promised that these media houses will pay the penalty for doing so in the future. There are many laws to protect the vulnerable in society; but enforcement is severely lacking, and the President called upon the police to treat these offences seriously.
President Jagdeo said that the PPP/C Government has driven many changes in the legislative environment and that the Sexual Offences Act was promised in its 2006 Manifesto, but because of democratic processes involving broad-based consultations and review by select committees and rights bodies, it has taken this long to fructify.
The President opined that the broad-based involvement played a critical role in shaping and finalizing the legislation and alluded to the right balance needing to be struck without compromising on principles.
Stating that his personal approach to issues has always been one of tolerance, the President vehemently stated that his tolerance does not extend to perverts and that he has no tolerance for the predators in society who cause harm to vulnerable victims of their lustful fancies.
This Bill is a welcome one, and wherever Dr. Cheddi and Mrs. Jagan are, they must be smiling down at this nation today, because protecting the vulnerable in society, especially the women and children, was a cause dear to both their hearts.