Dear Editor,
Congratulations to Volda Lawrence for becoming the Chairman of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
Now, with Ms Lawrence being seen as a potential future presidential candidate in addition to being a current Cabinet member, and being now the second most powerful person in the PNCR, she needs to send clear messages to the Guyanese nation that she has no problem with apologising for wrong things said or done.
Such a gesture would be indicative of her mature and people-centred leadership and suggest that Ms. Lawrence is ready to be a leader of empathy and caring concern. Thus Ms Lawrence should:
1. Apologise to the nation in general, and females in particular, for referring to rape as ‘deflowering’. After all, rape — especially of children — is a heinous crime that now carries the death sentence in some nations, and that often leaves lifetime trauma in its wake.
2. Apologise to the nation, and especially children, for saying that sexual molestation of children is a ‘family matter’. The fact is that the rape of our children should be everyone’s concern, and should be treaated with utmost seriousness every which way, including legally.
Indeed, Ms Lawrence has created history by her ascension to the chairmanship of the PNC. Now she needs to create history by proving that she is a leader who has no qualms about apologising for seeming to condone and/or water down the most horrible of crimes against the nation’s most vulnerable citizens – our children.
Madam Chairman, please rise to the level of leadership demanded of your position. Prove to the nation that you are big and strong and humble enough to say ‘sorry’.
Sincerely,
Annan Boodram
