Sexist attacks on women have not gone unnoticed

Dear Editor,
Sherod Duncan’s latest video/song posted on Facebook, “Priya is a Wild Hog”, is another act that illustrates the depth of depravity that permeates the PNC/APNU/AFC and Guyana Teachers’ Union connection.
We are all shocked by this yet another occurrence in a stream of incidents of bullyism, sexism and misogyny on social media and in street protests. These attacks have established a clear trend and intent of the APNU-AFC’s distasteful attack against women, a recurrence of similar attacks displayed similarly during the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, with the vile racist and sexist attacks and threats to the safety of the Canadian High Commissioner, H.E. Chatterjee, and US Ambassador, H.E. Sarah-Ann Lynch, who dared to represent the positions of their principals in their capitals supporting the democratic will of the people be upheld. It was the same APNU/AFC leaders who made O-line stream of abuse and intimidation targeting the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Motley, in 2020.
The APNU/AFC leadership in the past has demonstrated a pattern of reprehensible behaviour that is of such decadence that it undermines the values and laws of our society. We should not forget the public personal attacks by the then Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, against professional women in government service in 2016 and 2017.
As Guyanese, we should be outraged by these escalating incidents, fomented and orchestrated by the PNC/APNU/AFC leaders and activists, and now joined by the Guyana Teachers Union, and denounce them.
The time is now for all to condemn this behaviour as unacceptable, and to dissociate publicly from all who promote this depravity and threaten the safety of all women and girls in our country.
The lyrics of the song posted by Sherod Duncan are close renditions of the distasteful chants used during the PNC/APNU/AFC and Guyana Teachers Union’s attempted protests. Whilst many of these chants went unnoticed, “Rape! Rape! Priya trying to rape we” was undeniably among the most abrasive and abhorrent statements to be made about a Guyanese woman.
How can the leadership of the Guyana Teachers Union, an organisation comprised overwhelmingly by women, and who teach girls in our schools, representing 50% of the school population, support songs and chants which surreptitiously mock the pervasive crime of rape? How can parents trust these teachers with their daughters?
Once again, we see the depraved behaviour of some APNU+AFC members, who, instead of dealing with the issues they are representing, have sunk to their usual low-life behaviour in attacking the current PPP/C Government.
The video shared by Duncan on social media is crass and clearly displays sexist and misogynistic behaviour to Minister Manickchand.
These sexist attacks on women have not gone unnoticed.
This is a Minister of Education who has championed women’s rights issues and has initiated progressive legislation to protect the rights of women and children, as well as the WOW programme to help women. This blatant attack on Education Minister Priya Manickchand must be condemned, and serious action must be taken against the APNU-AFC leadership, Sherod Duncan, and the Guyana Teachers Union.
Minister Priya Manickchand has been working tirelessly each and every day since our PPP/C Government came in to office on August 02, 2020. She has been implementing the Government’s programme aimed at ensuring that our children are protected during this pandemic, which has negatively affected our children in Guyana and across the globe.
Fact check for Sherod Duncan, the APNU/AFC leadership and the Guyana Teachers’ Union: Our Education Minister Priya Manickchand is indeed a successful Minister, who was able to lead her Ministry through systemic challenges and endure unexpected crises. She has worked to build the capacity of the education system as a whole by fostering leadership, accountability, evaluation and innovation. Education now has an outcome that everyone can agree on today! Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, under Minister Priya Manickchand’s leadership in Education, we now have well-rounded, educated children who have been given life skills to be able to generate a successful future for themselves. In turn, they are able to contribute positively to the societies in which they live. It is the job of an education system and its leaders to prepare these students for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead of them.
To give a child an education is to give everyone a future, hence we condemn the vicious attacks on the Minister of Education and efforts made by persons such as Duncan that seek to disrespect women and put them in great
danger of being victims to this bullyism, sexism and misogyny; and worse yet, rape and other sexual offences.

Sincerely.
David Adams