Union calls on PM to apologise

During the first “Conversations with the Prime Minister” forum on Monday, Rowley, responding to a question on the high murder rate said onethird of the murders were related to domestic violence and called on women to be more selective in their choice of mates, “I’m not in your bedroom.

I’m not in your choice of men. You have a responsibility to determine who you associate with and to know when to get out.” His comment caused national outrage among women’s groups with many saying he was victim shaming and blaming those women who were victims of domestic violence and other forms of crime.

In a statement yesterday, Maharaj, who is also political leader of the National Solidarity Assembly (NSA), said the PM must understand that the “intent of his statement and even if in his mind his statement was misconstrued, is irrelevant to the perceived insult generated against all women and the manner in which his statement came across to the general public.” “To turn this issue into a mountain, defending it at all cost is to show arrogance by the Prime Minister that is unwarranted and unjustified.

The Prime Minister must clarify his statement honestly and admit that he wanted to send a genuine warning to women and that inadvertently he would have been unable to express what he felt properly,” he said.

Maharaj said women were not property, slaves or possessions but were the “backbone of our families and our society” and should “never be afraid to simply live or to love or to have feelings and emotions.” “To simply tell women to be careful about the men they get into relationships with is to turn them into robots, without emotions and feelings,” Maharaj said, adding, “no one can definitely say or know what goes on deep within the recesses of another’s mind.” “You cannot, in a vacuum, call on women to choose wisely, we are all human beings and will make mistakes, to do so is to subtly place all blame on women even if they are the victims,” he added.

He said the PM should have urged men to “treat women with the respect they deserve” while women should not allow themselves to be treated as “chattel by any man, to demand their respect and at the first sign of disturbing behaviour on the part of a man, to take note, to try and assess logically and if unsure to get help.” Our mothers and daughters and sisters must never be put in a position where they are blamed for the misdeeds of men,” he said.