Two weeks ago, a woman had her throat slit and was stabbed multiple times by her husband. But this was not the latest spousal murder in Guyana. Several more shocked us the last week. There is even a report of a Policeman arrested for threatening to shoot his wife. Domestic Violence Against Women (VAW) (Intimate Partners Violence) is a national crisis in Guyana.
But the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) is largely AWOL, missing in action. President Granger is sickeningly silent. Shamefully, so too is the Prime Minister, the Social Protection Minister, the Public Health Minister, the Public Security Minister and the whole Cabinet. Three years after becoming President, President Granger, just this last week, barely made passing mention during a speech given to the women’s arm of the People’s National Congress (PNC), conceding that the women’s arm of the PNC must do more to fight VAW. He has never said anything about VAW in any national address or during any policy presentation or in a press conference. This is unacceptable. The invisibility of domestic violence to the Government, even as it has reached levels far beyond a national crisis, is startling, troubling, reprehensible, a national scandal.
In the meantime, the physical, sexual and mental abuse of women in Guyana continues to escalate unabated. The frequency of the murders of women by their intimate partners, close associates and other individuals, has increased to unprecedented, frightening levels. Worse, the cruelty of these murders has also reached unfathomable levels. Almost every week, there is another report of fatal violence against women. The nation has become numb, no longer shocked as almost every week there is another spousal murder of a woman.
The President must declare VAW a national emergency and demand that the relevant Ministers present a national action plan now. In fact, the President must scold the relevant Ministers for neglecting the issue and allowing it to escalate to a national crisis. His failure yet to do so boggles my mind. President Granger has abdicated his duty and is betraying girls and women, more than 50 per cent of our population. The escalating VAW is related to other problems in our society, such as the escalating abuse of children, more than 4000 reported cases last year, and the increase of school dropouts, more than 2600 in 2017, after almost a decade of reduction.
While the VAW crisis is invisible to APNU/AFC, it is not invisible to the Guyanese people. The Opposition Leader and the Opposition Chief Whip in Parliament have asked that VAW be treated as a crisis. Priya Manikchand, the former Social Services Minister and the former Education Minister, has highlighted the problem in FB Posts. I have written several articles in the last three years and highlighted VAW in social media. The media has frontally highlighted the cruelty and the neglect of domestic violence and the increasingly cruel and violent murders of women and girls in Guyana. Thousands of Guyanese have taken social media to highlight the growing crisis.
VAW remains one of the most systematic and widespread violation of the rights of women globally. It is a public health pandemic. This is not a new problem globally and it is certainly not a new problem for Guyana. When I was a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Cabinet member, VAW was treated as a national priority problem. Priya Manickchand, as the then Social Services Minister, made it a national priority social issue to address. Throughout the period of the PPP tenure, we were robust in keeping the issue on the national agenda.
The Granger-led APNU/AFC, in contrast, is neglectful and has failed to address VAW with an urgent and comprehensive plan. There is need for the Government to say something and to do something. Their silence shows that they are tone-deaf and insensitive to the problems women and girls face. Fledgling programmes in place in Guyana for more than a decade now, appear to have become invisible. This invisibility appears to be deliberate because APNU/AFC thinks if it can hide it under the rug. But it is also their attitude – Minister Lawrence sees child sexual abuse as a “family matter” and rape is just a “deflowering” issue.
The time for silence is long past. VAW is a national crisis. APNU/AFC is AWOL and abrogating its responsibility. In lieu of the Government’s silence and lack of interest on this matter, the Women and Gender Equality Commission must declare VAW in Guyana a national crisis. The Parliament of Guyana must declare unequivocally that ‘Time Is Up, Time to STAMP IT OUT’.
