Deborah Backer should be Speaker

Dear Editor,

I will be very disappointed if Deborah Backer is not elected as the Speaker of the National Assembly of Guyana. I have written extensively and regularly about the need for her to hold this post – a most important point – that she will be the first woman in our country to hold such an important office at this very crucial time in our country’s history.

I detest tokenism, that is to say,  put a ‘woman’ in a certain position to show that we like women around or put a person of a particular race in certain position because we want to show that we are not racial in our orientation. That is a messed up way of thinking and we must change it.

I sincerely feel that Sister Deborah Backer is a very capable woman.
I have had some dealings with her during the elections campaign and seen her in parliament putting Clement Rohee and others in their places.  I agree with the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers that she must be elected because she has all the qualities that are necessary to be a good Speaker.

The women in Guyana must stand up for the rights of women and do everything necessary –  even stop sleeping with the men – if that is going to bring about the necessary changes in our society. Women’s power must take centre stage now or never.

Women’s rights cannot be taken for granted.

Our women must be respected, loved and care for in every sense. We need to place them in the highest positions of authority and support them in every way possible to fulfil their duties and responsibilities. Women are our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and girlfriends, and we must ensure that they enjoy equal rights in our society.

The widespread abuse of and violence against women that has become commonplace in our country is a reflection of a deep crisis of disrespect and total disregard for our womenfolk.

One of the problems I have had with the people who have ruled our country – the PNC and now the PPP – is that they have engaged in ‘show business,’ and have not been really serious in the implementation of what they have on paper. Our laws have become meaningless. They have not had the effect intended.

We suffer from a very bankrupt political culture, largely inherited from our colonial masters and from our own cultures. This is an uphill battle, which we must fight in highly organised manner alongside our women.  Our women have the most important role to play in the moulding of a modern society, and if they are not treated with respect and given the opportunity to exercise that level of authority we will never progress and get out of the rot  that Mr Jagdeo and the PPP and others got us into. Remember the treatment that Varshnie got at the hands of Mr Jagdeo? Most of the women stayed silent. The time has now come to act. Get up and get it; we are ready to move.

Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud