Dear Editor,
I SPENT the past two weeks reflecting deeply, and moreso last weekend, reflecting on the negative impact of our leadership, both past and present; and I have concluded that our men have failed us as leaders, and President David Granger and the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo are continuing to fail us. Our leaders have failed our women, we look to our men as our protectors and providers and this is no different with our men holding leadership positions.
I read the petitions last weekend for Retired Justice Claudette Singh to resign as Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and for Acting Chief Justice Roxane George to be investigated and removed, and I could not help but reflect on the state of women in Guyana, and whether our men as leaders have done enough, or are doing enough. I could not help but think how misplaced our anger is. I could not help but ponder on when will our men in leadership begin to really fight for us and our children and for the future of our children.
One of the best things that could happen to a man, especially a man with power, as do the President and Opposition Leader, is to have someone in your life who will straight-talk to you. Not in a disrespectful manner, but to help to bring balance in your lives and to keep you grounded. So, I will now straight-talk to President Granger and the Leader of the Opposition.
Retired Justice Claudette Singh and the Acting Chief Justice Roxanne George are not the problem; these women have worked hard to get to the top of their profession, and now we are trying to destroy what they have built. What we want Justice Singh and the Chief Justice to do, is to clean up the mess, but let’s talk a bit about whose mess it is. Let’s talk about who created this mess.
The mess in Guyana currently was created by Forbes Burnham, Cheddi Jagan, Desmond Hoyte, Samuel Hinds, Donald Ramotar; and Bharrat Jagdeo and David Granger. What we are asking the Chairman of GECOM and the Chief Justice to do, is to help us to clean up their mess. The Chief Justice and the Chairman of GECOM are required to do what is required based on the law. President Granger and Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo are required to clean this mess up with a political solution.
President Granger created or contributed to this mess by not doing enough and Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo created and contributed to the mess by doing too much. So, let us lay the blame where it should be, the Chairman of GECOM and the Chief Justice, are not the political leaders.
As women in Guyana, we have always been fighting for our men in leadership. I see the people on the front lines fighting for President Granger and the Leader of the Opposition and Mr. Irfaan Ali and many or most of them are women. We the women are in the forefront of the fight, whether it is for democracy, rule of law or respect for our leaders, we are there, in the front line! But as I scan our society socially and economically, I am asking myself what are we fighting for? What do we the women of this country get from our men in leadership in return?
After fighting, our women go back to the pavements with their stalls selling as vendors; they make up about 75% (at least it looks that way) of the private security services. When our middle-class men are at home sleeping in the nights, our grandmothers, and mothers, are in front of their homes, as the security guards. Our women have become the protectors as security guards, for our middle-class men, some of whom are in leadership and we are fighting for them. The irony is that while our women are out in the nights protecting our middle-class men and their families, what or who are they protecting them from? We are protecting them from our sons and grandsons, who our women should be at home to nurture and raise in the nights
While we fight for our men in leadership, some of our women, spend five to ten years building their homes because they cannot access financing. While we fight for our men in leadership, our young girls are still leaving schools in their numbers because of teenage pregnancy, partly because no significant educational reform is being done, particularly in the Community High Schools. While we fight for our men in leadership, there are few re-orientation programme in the society, for the young men to be recruited, for example, into the private security services, so that our women when they retire, can get to experience relaxation and rest.
While we fight for our men in leadership, they want us removed when we work hard and achieve the top position at the university. While we fight for our men in leadership, they become comfortable in their positions as Presidents and Prime Ministers and Leader of the Oppositions, Ministers and Parliamentarians, and drive pass our women on the streets in the city, as they do vending. They pass our women in the security huts in from of their homes and never wonder if these women have access to financing for their growth and development? The never wonder how they can reform the educational sector so as to expand the choices and opportunities for the children of these women. I am in no way being disrespectful to women who are vendors and security guards, rather I am advocating for more to be done for them.
While we fight for our men in leadership, they are not creating enough programmes to provide greater opportunities for our young men, many of whom feel that the only hope they can have of a car, is by stealing one or becoming involved in illegal activities to get one.
While we blame the Chairman of GECOM and the Chief Justice, we continue to treat our men in leadership in the way some mothers treat with their sons, by not letting them take responsibility for their actions. President Granger has to take responsibility for his actions or inactions. He has to take responsibility for not doing enough and for not taking good sound advice. The Leader of the Opposition has to take responsibility for doing too much and not doing enough of the right and honourable things and for not building trust in the process.
As I watch the men in the international organisations and from the developed and some developing countries countries calling for a declaration of the 2 March, 2020 General and Regional Elections, even though some of us are crying out to them saying that if that happens, our sons and daughters, our babies, may get hurt, but they are not listening. They sit in their ivory towers shouting back at us: Declaration! Democracy! Rule of Law! Without seriously examining the context. I wonder what is the principle for which they are fighting, in some cases it is the ‘principles of business’ because there is no principle to fight for in the 2 March elections; not the principle of democracy, not the principle of rule of law because the election were so corrupted; has corruption become a principle now? Mahatma Ghandi said ‘to believe in something and not live it, is dishonest’.
I wonder how many of these men know what the pain a mother feels when her child or children are in danger. President Barrack Obama said that ‘your children are like your heart outside of your body’, I see many hearts outside of parents’ bodies in the form of our children in Guyana.
Finally, what Guyana needs is not a declaration but a solution! As women, we will continue to fight for our men in leadership, but my one request is, President Granger and Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, can you make the fight worth it for us and our children and their future? Maybe we need a ‘Women’s Political Party’ because we think more of our children and their future.

Yours faithfully,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas