PRIYA MUZZLED
– refuses to apologise to C.N. Sharma
– says she cannot abandon victims in the name of keeping Parliament happy

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has been muzzled in Parliament for making a passing reference to C.N. Sharma’s alleged proclivity for raping little girls with whose mothers he has affairs, but she was promptly gagged by the Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman. It seems reference to C.N. Sharma is out of bounds as the Speaker seemingly subsumed his impartiality to fraternity.

Minister Manickchand should stand her ground. To do otherwise would be to say to all those who have been wronged in society that their leaders have abandoned the mandate for which the electorate empowered them – giving voice to the voiceless and vulnerable.

While C.N. Sharma is the father of APNU’s Jaipaul Sharma, he is also a public figure and where in the National Assembly Standing Orders does it state that a member of the public who has been accused of grave crimes should not be referred to in a matter under public debate in the House.
Priya Manickchand is a strong woman who recognises that heinous acts perpetrated on voiceless and vulnerable children should be a matter for condemnation, whatever the forum, and public figures who commit such acts are just as open to censure and villification as the average citizen, whether he is a relative of a Member of Parliament or not.

This ban about references to relatives in Parliament should only apply to private citizens who lead exemplary lives.
Many are the times that Opposition MPs have castigated Government Members of Parliament and hurled accusations about their relatives without any objection by the Speaker; so why this protection for the ‘good name’ of C.N. Sharma?

Manickchand was seated and speaking, which constitutes ‘heckling’, an accepted practice in Parliament. When Government MPs protested against AFC party member Moses Nagamootoo calling residents of Leguan “grass-cutters”, the Speaker advised, conversely, that the Government MPs grow a “thick skin”; so this advice can be retorted to the joint Opposition, because what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander, but it seems as though there is one rule for the Opposition side of the House, and a more disadvantageous one for the Government side.

As the Speaker ranted at the Minister she was stunned, because she was not even allowed to speak as he issued an immediate ultimatum – apologise for her remark or stay silent, even as she attempted to explain that it was a matter of ethics, her conviction that the criminal acts allegedly committed on innocent children made vulnerable by their poverty by C.N. Sharma deserved public condemnation at every forum on which such issues are raised, but she was discourteously shouted down by the Speaker who refused to allow her submission that apologising for her remark would create an ethical dilemma for her.
Minister Manickchand is known for conceding to the Speaker’s ruling, and it is quite possible, had she been allowed to explain and the Speaker had yet demanded an apology she might have issued that apology, bearing in mind her mandate to represent the Government on her Ministry’s performance and projections in the National

Budget Debate.
Priya Manickchand has thus been effectively barred from participating in Budget Debates by the Speaker of the National Assembly, who threatened to disallow her from participating in the Budget Debates – 2014, if she does not offer an apology to APNU Member of Parliament Jaipaul Sharma for making passing reference to statutory rapes allegedly committed by his father, C.N. Sharma.

The Speaker had demanded that the Minister apologise after she heckled while MP Volda Lawrence was addressing the issue of rape in the society during her presentation.
Trotman said, “I deem it to be highly improper and if you don’t apologise I will not recognise you to participate in this debate.”
Manickchand stood to her feet after the objection was raised by Sharma and the Speaker and, while not refusing to apologise, attempted an explanation, but was obviously stunned into silence by the Speaker’s rants and refusal to let her give voice to her thoughts, even though she said she was in no way hitting at MP Sharma.
Apparently commission of the most dastardly crimes is not mentionable in the National Assembly if the alleged perpetrators are related to a member of the Opposition, but relatives of Government officials are considered fair game in the cut, parry and thrust of parliamentary debates.
This double standard is replicated even in the wider society by ostensible defenders of the voiceless and scrutineers and upholders of social conscience, such as WPA/APNU’s women’s arm – Red Thread, which have held demonstrations, protest actions and candlelight vigils in support of C.N. Sharma.
The National Assembly is where the leaders of the nation give voice to the vulnerable and the voiceless; and five vulnerable and voiceless girls found voice through Minister Priya Manickchand, who is now in the esteemed company of Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and the Liberator of Guyana, Father of the nation and Mahatma of the Western Hemisphere, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who gave voice to the Guyanese nation; all of whom had/have been muzzled by PNC Speakers in the forum of advocacy for justice – Guyana’s National Assembly.
Minister Manickchand was seated and speaking, which constitutes ‘heckling’, an accepted practice in Parliament. When Government MPs protested the Speaker’s AFC party member Moses Nagamootoo calling residents of Leguan “grass-cutters” he advised, conversely, that the Government MPs grow a “thick skin”; so this advice can be retorted to the joint Opposition, because what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander, but it seems as though there is one rule for the Opposition side of the House, and a more disadvantageous one for the Government side.
Minister Manickchand should not be dismayed, because she walks in the path of the greatest patriot of this country, who created the synergies for freedom in Guyana, which the PNC continues to wrest from PPP officials as what seems to be a ritualistic rite of passage of PNC speakers. But yet his voice cannot be silenced, because it resounds through the corridors of Guyana’s history – now and for all time to come.

Minister Manickchand is following in the footsteps of her great leader, giving voice to those who have been silenced. She should stand her ground. To do otherwise would be to say to all those who have been wronged in society that their leaders have abandoned the mandate for which the electorate empowered them – giving voice to the voiceless and vulnerable.