IRO president: I feel ashamed for women

Saying Tim Kee’s comments were meant to admonish women against dangers of lewd and suggestive behaviour especially at Carnival, Maharaj told the Sunday Newsday yesterday he stands in agreement with the Port-of-Spain mayor.

Last Wednesday, in commenting on the discovery of the body of Japanese pannist Asami Nagakiya under a tree at Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, before an autopsy revealed she had been murdered, Tim Kee had said women scantily dressed at Carnival events was a form of enticement and they should take care to avoid being abused.

His remarks evoked placard protests and the call for him to resign.

Yesterday, Tim Kee said he would step down as mayor.

Speaking before Tim Kee’s resignation announcement, Maharaj, while condemning the murder, said he understood Tim Kee’s point about when women behave in a vulgar manner.

“I think if I am to understand what the mayor was speaking about, from what I have read, even the Commissioner of Police was cautioning people during the Carnival season as well. We know that if people’s minds are very, very weak, it’s easy to be tempted.

We have to emphasise this, especially females; we know the way they dress. And when people are under the influence of alcohol, which of course weakens your mind and temptation grows; this is where we could never tell what could happen. What I’m saying, is that there is the probability of more negative things happening, than, more than the good things.” The IRO president said that the organisation would meet tomorrow for its’ monthly meeting and on the agenda for discussion would be the comments made by Tim Kee. Maharaj continued, “I don’t know his exact words, but when you look at the way, especially again, the way that the women dress and gyrate and things like that, it is not good moral and spiritual values. It’s just a total moral breakdown, where people no longer have respect for even themselves. You know, we always consider our bodies to be the temple of God, and when you see what is being done, it’s a total disgrace. I am not saying that even if you do that, you are to be murdered. I am totally, totally against anything like that. But I’m saying that we need to have a greater degree of respect.” Maharaj said Carnival is no longer the greatest show on earth, but it has degenerated into what he described as “strings and feathers”. Pastor Winston Mansingh, president of Faith Based Network of Trinidad and Tobago and head of the Celebrating Life HIV/AIDS Awareness Group, told Sunday Newsday that while Tim Kee’s comments were unfortunate, he agreed with the mayor’s position that scantily dressed women gyrating is immodest behaviour and makes them vulnerable to sexual attacks.

“I think to a certain extent, it creates an arousing in some of the male beings, and not everyone as we have seen around us, is able to control their desire, and their behaviour.

However, it would not justify murder.”