Outgoing president Paula-Mae Weekes and newly installed President Christine Kangaloo have once again set the country talking about two issues which continue to plague this country—racism and misogyny.
While the issues may be worlds apart depending on how one looks at it, both women were, by their own accounts, and unfortunately so, victims of attacks during their tenures in office.
In an interview last week, outgoing president Weekes described the level of racial abuse generally spewed on social media during her tenure, some directed at her, as “appalling” and “frightening.”
Perhaps in a last parting word to the nation, Ms Weekes advised citizens that this type of behaviour is dangerous for T&T because it will continue to block paths to progressive development. Furthermore, she admonished the country’s leaders, both political and otherwise, for not understanding this to be a trend that must be eradicated.
During a function launching a new women’s parliamentary group meanwhile, President Kangaloo noted that women legislators continue to be subjected to gender-based ridicule.
“Women are routinely subjected to gender-based attacks of one type or another, in which ugly insinuations are made about our inability to function independently of feminine wiles and charms; and about our having advanced to the positions that we hold, only because we have deployed them,” President Kangaloo told a gathering of former and current female parliamentarians.
Giving an example, President Kangaloo noted that both she and House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George were the subjects of “vile and offensive” gender-based attacks of fairly recent vintage at that.
Significantly, President Kangaloo said she was taken aback at the deafening silence of civil society and women’s groups during the period of attacks.
Indeed, President Kangaloo’s situation should be fresh in citizens’ psyches, she having just come through a barrage of attacks following her nomination for the highest office in the country. It is, of course, an issue she raised during her inauguration last week, as she diplomatically extended an olive branch to her detractors to join her in making T&T a better place for the future.
It is thus extremely disappointing that both holders of these high offices would make such assessments of the current state of T&T society.
Even more unfortunate is the fact that some of this ideology has been spewed openly from public platforms by leaders of political parties for years without so much as a thought for what the country could reap from these seeds of discord.
Currently, both Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar have been guilty of leading their support bases down dark paths, sometimes even doubling down on their stances despite public outcry. These attitudes are magnified via social media, where individuals, often hiding their true identities and even sometimes working for political entities, unleash devious plots to stain and malign their intended targets.
If we are to take what both President Kangaloo and her predecessor have intimated, T&T is on a steep precipice, but this has not happened overnight. Needless to say, it is time for our leaders across the board to bring this country back, since the path to a rejuvenation in this case can only start from the top.