PRESIDENTIAL Advisor and PPP/C presidential candidate ,Mr. Donald Ramotar, has pledged to sustain the struggle for women’s equality. Indeed, the PPP was created on the basis of empowering the vulnerable, and it was the women’s arm of this party that pioneered and consolidated the struggle and drove many changes in the socio-political landscape in Guyana; and it is as a result of this party’s struggles that women achieved many rights, including the right to vote and to work after marriage.

From the inception of the Jagans’ long, hard fight for justice and equality in the nation, the political construct they had formed in the PPP with all their supporters has waged a relentless struggle to first win independence for Guyana and, subsequently, to wrest democracy from the monstrous jaws of the neo-nazis who had imposed a Draconian rule over the hapless and helpless Guyanese nation after having created divisions in the people, which still mercilessly plague this country.

The players and faces change but the strategies never do.  However, the current Government has demonstrated its caring for the Guyanese people over and beyond any borders, with dynamic and transformational changes in the developmental landscape of Guyana. At the opening ceremony of the Ministry of Housing’s International Building Exposition in August of 2010, young Housing Minister Mr. Irfaan Alli had poignantly asked: “…why do we always burden ourselves with negativity instead of celebrating what we have accomplished as a people?”
Indeed, why?
The socio-economic issues in the country affect everyone, and the government is addressing the people’s needs with equity and fairness, as any objective observer would concede.

And, except for those with their own self-serving agendas, Guyanese are taking cognizance as a nation and, slowly, there has been an emergence of reconciliation and the knowledge that we are not enemies following divergent paths, because our goals are the same, and this is demonstrated everyday as Guyanese from every community and every walk of life come to the realisation that opposing their personal development for the glorification, aggrandizement, and enrichment of pseudo-leaders cannot build a peaceful and prosperous country for their children to inherit.

They are also recognising that the PPP/C Government has their welfare at heart, because formerly impoverished families now, as the President once remarked, have achieved dignity because they own things, especially their own homes, which gives them a stake in their own country and a sense of belonging and security that they have never had before.

But then Guyana’s current leaders have demonstrated that they have an inherent love for their fellow man, a commitment to the general advancement of society, and an approach to a national developmental paradigm based on integrity and honesty, instead of egomania driving self-aggrandizement.

Addressing women’s issues in a psychological environment socialized to belittle and subjugate the female gender is an uphill task, because one is trying to change mindsets and traditions. However, the attempts are slowly prevailing, not least because the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has been taking a hands-on approach to deal with spousal abuse and child molestation and has driven many pieces of legislation to empower the law-enforcement and judicial arms of the country, so that women and children today have greater protection within the ambit of the law.
Also, the government and its various social arms are partnering within the wider society and stakeholders within communities in efforts to identify and stamp out problem areas.
So Donald Ramotar’s comments, in line with the PPP having always had enlightened policies, is no idle talk, but is based on his knowledge of pioneers of the women’s movement, such as Janet Jagan and Winifred Gaskin, founders of Guyana’s first female political movement, the WPEO – which later morphed into the current-day Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO).

The success of this thrust for empowering women is evident in the leadership within PPP ranks and the Government that was birthed from its struggles.

Donald Ramotar has absolutely no need nor obligation to apologize for nor justify PPP/C’s policies on female equity and empowerment. These are evident from that party’s track record in or out of Government.
The party’s founding-leader, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, set a primary example because he always gave women equal status and was adamant about other party members following suit.
Although he has conceded, rightfully so, that there is need to intensify the struggle on women’s issues, Donald Ramotar need have no regrets about the PPP’s record on women empowerment, because the opposition, despite its strident collective diatribes on the issue, is today merely treading on the trail that the PPP and its women’s arm blazed decades ago. The opposition are like ‘Kumkarran’, that legendary person from the Hindu Ramayan, because they have only now awoken from a lengthy slumber and seem to have no idea of this country’s real history of struggle.