Dear Editor,
President Jagdeo conferred our highest National Award on President Lula of Brazil on November 25, 2010. President Jagdeo referred to President Lula’s humble beginnings, and his rise to the presidency saying that “he is a leader of deep values, who is driven by a sincere conviction that the actions of each of us can create a better world.”
Guyana’s recent Universal Periodic Review highlighted Guyana’s failure to seriously address two violations – the corporal punishment of children in schools and the failure to ensure the rights of Guyana’s gay, lesbian and transgender citizens. President Jagdeo and the people who joined in conferring the OE on President Lula should be inspired by Lula’s convictions on these issues.
In July 2010, Lula sent a bill to the Brazilian congress which sought to explicitly forbid parents or guardians from relying on corporal punishment and “cruel and degrading treatment” to discipline children. It was widely reported that Lula explained the rationale for the law, saying, “If punishment and whipping solved things, we wouldn’t have so much corruption in this country. We wouldn’t have so many bandits in this country.” He also referred to his own humble beginnings saying he felt fortunate because his mother never struck any of her eight children, and that he had followed her example with his own.
Also of significance, Lula noted to his critics, “No-one wants to prevent a mother being a mother, or a father being a father,” he said. “We just want to show that it is possible to do things in a different way.” In Guyana’s UPR process, Brazil encouraged Guyana to also prohibit all forms of corporal punishment against children.
Lula’s vision of a better world also includes his belief in the equality of persons who are not heterosexual. In 2008, he became the first president of any country to launch a conference with the sole purpose of promoting gay equality, calling for a “time of reparation” in Brazil.
At that conference President Lula announced his support for gay rights, and stated he will “do all that is possible so that the criminalisation of homophobia and the civil union may be approved.” It was also reported that homophobia is “the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head.”
Brazil continues to engage at the United Nations and other political fora in calling for removal of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.
President Jagdeo spoke of Guyana’s “profound gratitude and admiration as a nation” in conferring the Order of Excellence. It would be a good thing if President Jagdeo and the others who sat in the National Cultural Centre committed to that admiration and gratitude by emulating President Lula’s actions to create a better world.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
