Dear Editor
IT is most fortunate for all citizens that the APNU+AFC was elected to office in 2015, because under the oppressive yoke of the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) government, Guyanese women, the backbone of our society, were routinely neglected, openly threatened, verbally abused, physically attacked, and, unbelievably, female folk were even killed by forces allegedly aligned with the PPP; Guyanese should never forget those dark days. Citizens should vow to ensure that it never happens again. Women, in particular, should be ever vigilant that the PPP never again be given the slightest opportunity to hurt them as that party had done in the past.

The incidents of female abuse under the uncaring PPP regime are too numerous to exhaustively document in one article; however, a few examples will suffice to adequately demonstrate and clearly establish the nature of the beast that is the PPP, and show why women were rightfully and justifiably fearful. Indeed, many women lived in absolute terror under that regime, particularly those who had occasion to speak out against the excesses of that tyrannical, disrespectful PPP government.

Who can forget the infamous threat against one of our womenfolk in 2015, when Guyana’s PPP Minister of Health Bheri Ramsaran threatened to slap and strip a female rights activist Sherlina Nageer in an altercation that was caught on tape. Owing to widespread outrage and public pressure on the PPP from the public, the Health Minister was subsequently removed from his job.

In the April 20 incident, women’s and children’s rights activist Sherlina Nageer confronted the minister while he was leading PPP supporters in a public gathering and accused the minister of making racist statements.
“We have women and children dying under your watch. What are you doing here wasting time?” Ms Nageer demanded of the minister.
During the exchange of words, Ramsaran shouted at Ms. Nageer: “Shut your mouth and get out my face … You idiot … Get the hell out of my face … F*** off … you’re a little piece of s***.”

Later, after Ms Nageer had left the scene, the PPP minister told reporters: “I would slap her ass you know, just for the fun … I can have some of my women strip her.”
Of course, Guyanese know that the PPP is capable of worse, much worse.
On the afternoon of April 9, 2001, eyewitnesses saw a man on the backstairs of Freedom House with a handgun firing into a crowd of protesters on Robb Street, and as night stepped in, the body of Donna McKinnon, a 43-year-old market vendor lay dead on the empty lot next to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) headquarters. No one was ever held culpable for the woman’s death.

The dead woman’s daughter has said that she was in the city when she heard gunshots in the vicinity of Freedom House; she remembered that she did not have any idea that it was her mother who had been shot and killed until later that evening. It was while the family was watching a 19:00hrs newscast that they learnt of their mother’s horrific death.
The killing occurred during a period of heightened political tension which had enveloped the country at the time, as the then opposition, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), was protesting the results of the March 2001 elections.
On that horrible day, a crowd of protesters marched along Robb Street calling for dialogue between the PPP government and the PNCR opposition.
As the crowd converged in front of Freedom House late that afternoon, a number of gunshots rang out and video evidence posted on a nightly programme which was hosted at the time by activist Mark Benschop, showed a man in a long, black coat, moving in and out of the back door on a verandah at the top floor of Freedom House. Eyewitnesses said he had what appeared to be a gun in his hand. It is this man who eyewitnesses would later recall see firing into the crowd.

At the end of the shooting, McKinnon was found in the nearby empty lot. Another bystander, Ramnarine Bhood, was also shot and although a bullet was lodged near his spine, he survived.

The deceased McKinnon sustained multiple gunshots to her head, abdomen and right leg; she was found by passers-by covered under a galvanised sheet. Sometime around 18:30hrs, she was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

McKinnon’s reputed husband Brian Caesar said that at the time that he and his reputed wife were standing on the pavement at the entrance to the then Metropole Cinema, which was opposite Freedom House, when police ranks from the feared Target Special Squad, called the ‘Black Clothes,’ arrived at around 17:00hrs. Gunshots then rang out and as the crowd scattered, McKinnon, he said, ran in one direction while he ran in another. That was the last time he saw her alive.

One remembers too, the death of Donna Herod who was gunned down in Buxton/Friendship during a police operation. The mother of nine was killed while on her way to collect her children from school. And that was life for women under the rule of the brutal PPP. A life filled with fear. A life characterised by terror. A life defined by the possibility of being harmed by uncaring political forces. A life where one could be killed for no reason.

Thankfully, the terror ended in May 2015 when the APNU+AFC was elected to government. President David Granger had promised that women would be empowered, and be treated equal to men. His Excellency promised equality for women, eradication of poverty, employment opportunities, elimination of violence, access to education and the celebration of the achievments of women. And the President has kept his word. Women now enjoy equal access to opportunities. For example, the highest ministerial office in Guyana is held by a woman, Ms Dawn Hastings-Williams is Minister of State. Indeed, Guyana has come a long way; can we ever risk going back to the dark days of the PPP?
Regards
Mark DaCosta