Not for the first time in its tenure the PPP/C government is facing questions about the conduct of one of its senior officials, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall. He has been accused of pressing a New York-based young woman, Shanaz Hussein for sexual relations at a time when she was vulnerable having lost her father the year before. Minister Dharamlall has not availed himself to the press to answer questions. It must be noted that government ministers have to be answerable for their conduct and cannot escape under the shield of myriad excuses. This has been a constant feature of PPP/C governments. The age of unaccountability has long passed.
No firm conclusions can be drawn on the allegations against Mr Dharamlall until he answers the questions although there is enough information in the public domain – a voice note in particular – and correlations with his known travel itinerary to warrant an investigation.
This is all the more important in an environment where exploitation and abuse of women and girls are serious problems. This government has invested heavily in various programmes to uplift girls and it would be the height of hypocrisy were it not to take this matter seriously.
In the absence of a response by Mr Dharamlall to the allegations, questions were posed to President Ali on the sidelines of a GDF event on Wednesday. In a recording of the questioning commendably released by the Office of the President, Mr Ali engaged in deflection and attempted to construct a defence for Mr Dharamlall. The questions, however, remain unanswered and the government now has a problem on its hands.
The President suggested to journalist Denis Chabrol that the complainant needs to report the matter to the police and disclosed that the Minister had advised him that he had lost his phone. The President further said that Mr Dharamlall also had some allegations about the “totality of the conversation”.
“Now there is a procedure in dealing with all these matters, you agree with me? I can’t, if I am to look at social media every day, I can’t run an operation based on social media. There is a procedure in dealing with these matters…so those procedures have to be utilized and followed,” the President said.
Asked about the procedures, the President responded “If someone has an allegation against somebody, in whatever shape and form, they have to report those allegations, they have to report those allegations because the Minister would have said to me that his phone was lost.
“He also have some allegations of his own that he is making in terms of the totality of the conversation that took place,” the President said.
“I am not going to be the judge of that on any side. But if there is an allegation, there is a place in which those allegations has to be made”, he added.
Mr Chabrol further asked “Meaning the police?”
“That is where allegations are reported, if something is wrong, someone is done or something is wrong or somebody feels aggrieved that their rights have been breached that is where they have to report… Even if someone is malicious against you Chabrol on social media you have to go and make the report based on the laws that are available. And then the totality of what took place has to be investigated,” the President answered.
Several things are clear from the President’s answer. First, he acknowledges that there were conversations between the complainant and Minister Dharamlall. Second, he is engaged in damage control on behalf of Minister Dharamlall. Aside from the fact that the ‘lost phone’ excuse is so worn, what was completely lacking in the President’s response was any consideration of Ms Hussain and the concerns that she raised. As far as the President was concerned she should lodge a complaint with the police.
Apart from the fact that the President should be aware of how daunting it would be for a 22-year-old woman to pursue a complaint with the police against a government minister whether in Guyana or New York, Mr Ali totally missed the point that his responsibility as the head of the government was to ascertain whether Mr Dharamlall had behaved improperly with this woman, thereby contravening ethical codes and the standard that the administration has set. There is also a Code of Conduct in the Integrity Commission Act against which the Minister’s behaviour can be examined.
Once a crime had been alleged the complainant would naturally be expected to lodge a case with the police. However, we are not there as yet. We are at the point where the President was given an opportunity to stand in defence of evenhandedness in the matter of a complaint against one of his ministers. Instead of showing impartiality, the President reflexively spun Mr Dharamlall’s defence in line with the PPP/C’s well-established practice of not holding its ministers and top officials accountable.
What the President should have done was to state that he would have the allegations against Mr Dharamlall examined to determine whether there was unbecoming behaviour. There is still time to do this so as not to create the impression that the vulnerable have little chance of securing redress were they to be wronged by a member of this administration.
Mr Dharamlall’s general conduct and in relation to women has raised valid concerns about whether he should remain a minister of the government. In December last year, he had the temerity to state that two female justices of appeal, including the Chancellor of the Judiciary, “… should be defrocked”, apparently in full ignorance of the separation of powers and the respect that should be accorded to the judiciary and its decisions. There was no known public reprimand of Mr Dharamlall by the President.
On February 9th this year in the hallowed chambers of Parliament, Mr Dharamlall uttered his now infamous insult to a female MP “You got to get a dildo, that’s what you looking for”. Again, there was no reprimand from the President and on that occasion the otherwise unrelentingly voluble female ministers of government were silent. The unwillingness to hold all persons in public life accountable for misbehaviour is what continues to make a mockery of programmes such as the UN’s and EU’s `Spotlight’ which are geared at protecting women, girls and the vulnerable.
Now that he has spoken on the matter, it behoves President Ali to have the complaint against Minister Dharmlall investigated by his administration.
