Christine Kangaloo must understand the criticisms she is receiving now is not gender related but rather whether she was able to separate her role as a member of the PNM and whether or not she is an all-encompassing President or a PNM President first and foremost!
Is President Christine Kangaloo now attempting to change the narrative on her affiliation to the PNM by questioning whether she would be as harshly criticized as she is, if she were a man.
She attempted this same maneuver when, in one of her first public appearances as President, she was quoted in the media as saying that she, as the former Senate President and House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George were subjects of a “vile and offensive gender-based” attacks on social media which she said was an example of the kind of misogyny that women who are involved in the parliamentary process face worldwide.
Kangaloo must understand the criticisms she is receiving now is not gender related but rather whether she was able to separate her role as a member of the PNM and whether or not she is an all-encompassing President or a PNM President first and foremost!
Christine Kangaloo moved from the very partisan post as PNMs President of the Senate to the office of President of the Republic.
Kangaloo came from a PNM family; her father was a former PNM mayor, her father-in-law is a former PNM MP and Cabinet Minister; she married into a family that sits on state boards and her husband have been the recipient of many state legal briefs under the last PNM Administrations(s).
Under the former Rowley-led PNM Administration(s), both Kangaloo (as Senate President) and Annisette-George (as House Speaker) literally destroyed our Parliamentary democracy under the guise of political neutrality, behaving as though Parliament was an extension of Balisier House. It was never a case of their gender when the Opposition and other commentators had to be calling them out for their open abuse of their positions and the Constitution, all in the name of “protecting” the PNM.
Kangaloo was proud wearing her very partisan “PNM hat” and never adopted any type of non-partisan/apolitical chairmanship of the Senate by continually turning a blind eye to PNM MPs shortcomings and abuse of the standing orders.
At nearly every sitting of the Senate, Kangaloo (like Annisette-George in the HoR) kept inserting herself unnecessarily, obtrusively and systematically into debates when her unwarranted intervention denied the population the opportunity to get a fair idea of Opposition’s position on the issues and bills before brought to Parliament; these were never “vile and offensive gender-based attacks!”
Has Kangaloo ever spoken out against the most “vile and offensive gender-based” attacks of her former Political Leader and Prime Minister Keith Rowley who had a penchant of continuously making derogatory statements against women and was apparently proud of this fact since he appeared intent on wearing this disgusting trait as his personal badge of honour.
Did Kangaloo ever spoke out about Rowley’s blatant sexism and misogyny in his many verbal assaults on the then Opposition Leader now Prime Minister in particular and the women of the country in general.
How can the country ever forget when as Acting President, she most willingly moved with haste, on behalf of the Rowley-led PNM Administration, to do the distasteful, unsavoury and unprecedented illegal act of delivering a dismissal letter, severing the contract of a Governor of the Central Bank; which the Court ruled that the former Central Bank Governor was wrongfully dismissed and entitled to millions of dollars in compensation.
So Madam President, the criticisms you are receiving today have absolutely nothing to do with any type of gender-based attacks but rather your strong PNM ties and affiliation; no one will ever forget your message to the national community, “Remember to take the gospel of the PNM and spread it in your homes, in your villages, in your offices and throughout the length and breadth of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Capil Bissoon
