The AFC should be the last to talk about treatment of women in Guyana
* …has a history of targeting East Indian females

OLD KAI is pleased that the Government, through one of its spokesperson, Madam Gail Teixeira, has come forward and called it as she sees it, with regard to the AFC’s penchant for undermining and attacking independent, professional, strong willed females, all of whom share a similar commonality in their ethnicity.The AFC’s recent derogatory reference to Education Minister Priya Manickchand as ‘Sitira gyal’, the character of a folk song who is always found on a dam and then proceeds to lift up her clothes and behave in an unbecoming manner, is rather a more apt description of their Region 2 councillor who, according to the Police, was intoxicated recently when he stripped himself and began posing for the cameras.
But this is not the first time they have launched an attack against a female, as we will all recall the fate which befell Mrs. Gaumatie Singh, a former founding member of the AFC. She was promised a Parliamentary seat after the 2006 elections, only for the leadership to renege on its promise. Mrs. Singh had provided evidence to the media in support of her claim, via several e-mail correspondences.
This is what she was quoted as saying in November 2011 in reference to the entire episode, “You know what they did to me… I was just one woman who wanted to serve my country… I was attacked and burnt with corrosive acid months after I spoke out against the AFC and their dishonesty.” She had described the current AFC cabal as “…deceitful, disrespectful, and dishonest.”
But, Mrs. Singh and Minister. Manickchand are not the only females who have come under attack by the AFC leadership. In March last year, an executive member of the party publicly attacked Dr. Vishavla Sharma, the Medical Superintendent of the New Amsterdam Hospital, in a most heinous manner. The AFC official, speaking at a public meeting. mocked Ms. Sharma weight and used this to suggest she was not effective in her job.
Apart from Mrs. Singh; Mrs. Manickchand and Ms. Sharma, there was another Mrs. Singh, whom the AFC launched an unrelenting campaign against to remove her from her job in the public service.
Old Kai is referring to none other than Mrs. Geetangli Singh of the Auditor General’s office. Their excuse was grounded solely on the fact that she was the wife of Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, and all manner of attempts were made by the AFC to intimidate and humiliate this qualified young woman so as to evict her from her job, where she was employed long before her marriage to Dr. Singh.
But apart from Mrs. Gaumattie Singh, Mrs. Priya Manickchand, Ms. Vishavla Sharma and Mrs. Geetangli Singh, there was also another Mrs. Singh who came under sustained attack from the AFC.
Mrs. Geeta Singh-Knights, formerly of CLICO and a Board Member of GuySuCo, who was also well qualified for the positions she held, was constantly harangued and vilified in the media by the AFC, with their leadership demanding that the then Head of State fire her from her job.
The trend is clear and unmistakable, they cannot hide nor can they run from it. Mrs. Gail Texeria was clearly onto something when she revealed that the AFC was carrying out a racist and sexist campaign against East Indian females in society. The evidence is there, they cannot dispute this fact.
What they need to do is offer a sincere apology, not only to the victims of their attacks, but also to all women in our society. When they attacked and ridiculed Priya Manickchand and referred to her as ‘Sitira gyal’, they are not only attacking and ridiculing the females whom she represents in the PPP/C, but all of our womenfolk, as she is a national leader and represents our entire nation.
It is time our women stand up and demand that this barbaric mentality the AFC leadership has towards females in society cease immediately.