PM in alternate reality

Rowley, speaking Monday night in the first in a series of ‘national conversations’, said: “You call on the Prime Minister to do something about crime. 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 know when to get out. And the State will try to help. But then when the tragedy occurs and it becomes known to the police, the police must now go the extra mile to ensure that there is detection.” The statement drew widespread disapproval and outrage from women across the country who said the Prime Minister was blaming victims of violence for choosing violent men. Facing a tsunami of public disapproval, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi defended the Prime Minister’s statement, saying it was “taken out of context.” Mahabir-Wyatt however, was not convinced.

“Claiming these words were taken out of context and do not mean what they say, sounds like one of (US President) Mr Trump’s references to ‘alternative facts’. If they do not mean what they say, whose “responsibility” are they referring to?” “We wish to point out that Jamilla De Revenaux had gotten out of the relationship when she was murdered in MovieTowne. Rachael Ramkissoon, a 16-year-old student murdered on her way to school, was not in a bedroom or a relationship with her murderer.

Shannon Banfield, a young woman murdered and stuffed in a shelf was not in a relationship with her murderer,” Mahabir-Wyatt said.

Rowley made the controversial statement in response to a female member of the audience who raised concerns about these very incidents which hinted at a rise in violence against women.

Enraged by Dr Rowley’s answer, Mahabir-Wyatt, a former Independent Senator asked, “What is the Prime Minister talking about? What ‘reality’ is he in? Is he blaming women for “choosing” their attackers? How exactly do they do that? Do men (who are) about to kidnap and kill a 16 year old girl have a sign across their foreheads that say, ‘Danger! I am a murderer’?” Mahabir-Wyatt said the country’s women felt betrayed by Rowley’s statement because he did not direct his attention to men. “He is not warning men about their tendency toQwards violence.

Their easy resort to abuse when rejected. He is telling women to ‘choose more wisely’. How do we do that with an unknown rapist, or psychopath,” she asked.

(See Page 10A)