Baboolal defends her comment

Although her statement has provoked anger within her PNM party, Senate President Dr Linda Baboolal was unrepentant yesterday, fearlessly sticking to her view that East Indian women controlled the family’s finances.

“My mother and my grandmother looked after the expenses in the home,” she insisted. “If you can’t talk the truth in this country, what else can you talk?” she asked rhetorically.

Asked why she thought it necessary to make this particular statement at this point in time, (in the light of the various controversies in Basdeo Panday case and the Chief Justice issue in which the Hindu women and finances were points of contention), Baboolal said: “I had written that speech a long time ago, as soon as I got the invitation (from the Seventh Day Adventist Church), and I saw no reason to change it because someone else has said something (similar to it).”

Panday, who was convicted for failing to declare his London Bank account had used as a defence the argument that Hindu women were the financial bosses in the home. CJ Sat Sharma also reportedly told the prosecuting QC Timothy Cassell, on the Panday case during a transatlantic flight that his (Cassel’s) case was weak because Hindu women indeed controlled the finances of the household.

Yesterday when told her statement could be interpreted as supporting Panday and the CJ comments, she said: “I did not even know the CJ had said that. Well the CJ was speaking the truth.”

On Panday, she said: “I am not reporting on, or supporting, what Mr Panday has said. I was merely talking about Indian women.”

She added that her comments were based on information from reputable historians such as Brinsley Samaroo as well as her own personal experience.

Speaking defiantly, she added: “People could interpret it how they want. I was talking about the Indian immigrants. As President the Senate, I try to stay out of controversy. I was just talking generally. If you can’t talk the truth in this country, what else can you talk?” she asked.

Asked whether her comment referred solely to what obtained in the past, or whether it related to the current situation in Indian families, Baboolal asserted that the statement “referred to what happened historically, as well as to what is still happening.”

Baboolal, who has been in public life for the past 14 years, said she was surprised that the statement generated such controversy. “I just can’t believe it!” she said incredulously.

Asked for a comment to Baboolal’s statement, Panday quipped: “It is a pity that she didn’t give evidence on my behalf.”

However a senior UNC source, commenting on the role of the Indian woman, stated: “I don’t see them controlling the money, in the past or now. Many of the men in the past refused to properly register their marriages and consequently many women had to fight their mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law for property after their husbands died.” Noting that Baboolal’s comments appeared to support Panday case, source stated: “The masses of East Indian women, don’t control their husband’s finances. And I don’t think that that situation applies only to East Indians families.

“I don’t know of any of the men — Indian, African, Chinese or White who hand over their entire income-earning capacity to the woman, so that she could manage it. I don’t know where these people (who are suggesting this) are living.”

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Christine Sahadeo said she believed that the statement applied to the old days “when the resources were extremely limited and the budget very tight.” “Like when my father worked for $300 a month and you had to prioritise...the woman was well poised to manage the household budget. But in modern times, that doesn’t really occur,” she contended.

Sahadeo who stated that her husband was a chartered accountant like herself, pointed out that with the advent of education for women, came financial independence. “So while the professional woman is still assigned the duties of groceries and food, investment decisions such as ‘do we have one or two cars or do we buy or rent a home?’ are made jointly. So it is not a question of the women being in control now,” she argued.

A senior PNM official, lamented that Baboolal’s comments gave the impression that in Roman Catholic, Anglican, Seven Day Adventist, Baptist households the women had no say.