MPs must put abuse of women on the front burner

MALE LEGISLATORS IN THE PAST ABUSED FEMALE PARLIAMENTARIANS
claims former A Partnership for National Unity Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition
minister, Ms. Simona Broomes.
Making a pitch to current female members of parliament (MP) on social media, Broomes
admitted whether voluntary or by force, female legislators are gagged, literally or figuratively.
“Let me tell you, sometimes you don’t have any voice sitting down there (in parliament) you
know. It’s still the men who run the show. So, women sit down there sometimes and they get the
full share of abuse,” the former out-spoken and sometimes controversial legislator said.
Now female parliamentarians must agitate for protection of abused women and put the issue on
the national front burner, Broomes advocated.
“I calling on women in this country, women in politics, and women in parliament…because
sometimes you want to know if it’s a joke,” she said.
The former government minister and parliamentarian made the stunning disclosure that some
male parliamentarians not only practice spousal abuse, but relish it, and it is therefore par for the
course for them to vilify female MPs.
“(Some of) the men…are abusive to their wives. So, who cares about abuse? So, what I am
trying to get at? I myself, the most verbal abuse that I faced was right there in parliament,”
Broomes recalled.
“You don’t want to know sometimes when you sitting facing each other at the side of the floor
what is the conversation: those that you might not hear going through the microphone; it is so
disrespectful. So, you face abuse sitting down right there and they are proud of it,” the former
MP said.

She said she condemned Regional Executive Officer (REO), Karl Singh of Upper Takutu Upper
Essequibo (Region Nine) involved in the shooting incident of a female in his vehicle.
“It’s a place where in Guyana they don’t have a culture of respect that is why a woman can be
shot in her abdomen. Well, I want to condemn that and I am still looking to see all the women
sitting in parliament making strong statements including those on the government benches,” she
said.
Broomes is mystified by the continued silence of Ministers and government MPs, Ms. Pauline
Sukhai; Dr. Vindya Persaud, and Ms. Priya Manickchand, and opposition legislators, Ms.
Amanza Walton-Desir, and Dr Karen Cummings.
“I want to see a statement from…whoever is the shadow minister. What kind of lawlessness
are we in now? Where is civil society, and don’t ask me where I deh because I deh right
here,” Broomes concluded in typical Guyanese creole.