New Member of Parliament (MP) Dr. David Hinds has criticised Minister of Local Government Priya Manickchand over a government visit to Tiger Bay, telling her to “go somewhere else” to launch her presidential campaign and not use the community’s children as ornaments.
Hinds made the comments Monday evening on his online programme Politics 101, responding to images posted by Manickchand showing her interacting with children during a walkabout in Tiger Bay. President Irfaan Ali also visited the community, and announced new training, employment, and community-policing initiatives aimed at transforming Tiger Bay into one of Georgetown’s first “model neighbourhoods.”
Hinds, who did not comment directly on the government’s announcements during the episode, said photographs online, which showed half-clothed children interacting with Manickchand, made “a poppy show of the poverty of our people.”
“Go somewhere else and launch your presidential campaign,” he said.
Hinds framed the issue in racial terms, arguing that similar conduct would not be tolerated in Indo-Guyanese areas. “Every Black man and Black woman should be offended by that spectacle,” he said.
“Do you think, if I were to go into the ghettos of Bath Settlement or Enmore or wherever and pick up little naked Indian children and hold them up like that… Indian people would not allow me,” the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive said.
Dr. Hinds said the government should give a $1 million cash grant to every household in “ghetto” communities like Tiger Bay. He also said leaders should listen to residents in these communities, then craft policies to lift them out of poverty.
The Guyana government said a new skills-training centre will be created in partnership with Nations Inc., while 30 local businesses have agreed to hire residents. The administration also plans to expand social services programmes and strengthen coordination between residents and law enforcement, it said.
