Mungalsingh stands alone
By Mark Lawrence, newsday.co.tt
Thursday, March 1 2007
OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) Senator Harry Mungalsingh stoutly defended statements he made to the Upper House on Tuesday that abortion and cash-incentive sterilisation could be measures used in the fight against crime.
Senator Mungalsingh stood alone yesterday as two senior UNC members — leader of Opposition business in the Senate and deputy Political Leader Wade Mark and Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma — both distanced the party from Mungalsingh’s statements.
“That’s not a party position. That is a personal Mungalsingh view,” Mark pointedly stated.
Asked whether Mungalsingh’s statement reflected poorly on the UNC, Mark replied, “As the leader of Opposition business in the Senate and the deputy Political Leader of the UNC party, I am telling you that Senator Mungalsingh’s view is not the view of the party.”
Sharma commented, “No one should panic. Everyone makes errors and some have their foolish moments and it may be a combination of both. It is not a party position.
However as a Senator, you are supposed to carry the party’s view, but this was not the case. He must be forgiven.”
Speaking to Newsday on his statement, Mungalsingh said he did not intend to say that abortion or sterilisation would by itself stop crime, but would be one component of a “comprehensive plan.” “I was speaking of the sociological factors. In the 16 specific communities I talked about, there are a number of solutions. I talked about access to land, education and opportunities,” Mungalsingh said.
Asked what communities he was referring to in his statement, he replied, “I was referring to what Government Ministers referred to as ‘hot spots’ of violent crime.”
Told that several interpretations of the statement could imply ethnic bias, Mungalsingh said that within his address he highlighted the need for politicians to ensure that ethnic groups within the nation were not divided.
“Politicians must not put a split in the ethnic communities. If I did say anything, it was that these communities appear to be PNM controlled,” Mungalsingh said.
“I am in close touch with the Muslim community and I know for a fact that they have no difficulty with what I have said. I fundamentally believe in a woman’s right to choose.”
Mungalsingh’s controversial statements were made in the Senate on Tuesday during Ramesh Deosaran’s private members motion calling on Government to explain how they are tackling crime.
Mungalsingh told the Senate that “83 percent of the prison population comes from specific communities, which predicates the need for a strong and distinct national development plan.”
He then said, “Such a plan must include the churches, a change in abortion laws, strong family planning services with cash incentives for voluntary sterilisation.” The statement sparked instant uproar with Local Government minister Rennie Dumas blaring, “Genocide! Genocide on the UNC platform!”
This is not the first time the UNC Senator has raised eyebrows. When he was sworn in as a UNC Senator, Mungalsingh prompted heavy picong from the Government benches when he had the chair he sits on in the Upper House, “blessed.”
Reprinted from:
www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,53098.html
Religious heads condemn Mungalsingh
SEVERAL RELIGIOUS leaders have reacted strongly against statements made by Opposition UNC Senator Harry Mungalsingh which recommended a “change in abortion laws” and “cash incentives for voluntary sterilisation” in “specific communities” a as means of tackling the crime issue.
Why the hell people can’t express themselves, especially this man. I think that his advice might work, get rid if Panday he’s the real fool in Trinidad.
Most of the crime is happening because of unwanted pregnancies that occurred. Some of them is just like animals.
Who needs a spineless government on both sides? The only solution I am seeing for this place is THE REAL JUDGMENT FROM GOD ALMIGHTY.
Trinidadians is living in a make believe world. All who glorying this place as paradise ask them? They don’t live here.
If this is a paradise why the hell you not living in it?
UNC hierarchy sends Mungalsingh packing
Mungalsingh drew instant condemnation on Tuesday when pointed out that 83 per cent of the prison population came from “specific communities” and that anti-crime plans should include abortion and cash-incentives for voluntary sterilisation.
Opposition Senator axed
Recently appointed Opposition Senator Harry Mungalsingh has been removed from office by Leader of the Opposition, Kamla Persad-Bissessar and UNC chairman Basdeo Panday.
UNC fires Harry
Less than three months after being sworn in as a United National Congress (UNC) Senator, Harry Mungalsingh was yesterday fired as a UNC Senator because of statements he made in the Upper House on Tuesday that abortion and cash-incentive sterilisation could be measures used in the fight against crime.
Dangerous talk from Senator
It is with extreme alarm that I read reports of temporary Senator Harry Mungalsingh’s contribution to a Senate debate on crime on Tuesday. I call on all right-thinking persons to reject his recommendation that abortion and cash incentives for voluntary sterilisation be introduced as part of a national development plan to reduce crime in T&T.
Since he predicated his recommendation by referring to a specific ethnic group, one can deduce that this recommendation is targeted at a particular ethnic group.
Unfortunately our knee jerk reaction to anything even remotely against the established underlying judeo-christian base of our system of governance is instant condemnation. Senator mungalsinghs advice would be applauded in a more mature society, but in this banana republic of small mindedness WE LIKE IT SO. Forever doomed to wallow in the misery of incompetence generated by those corrupt pseuso massas
I am always amazed at men who try to legislate the contents of women’s wombs. Why no call for sterilization of men? Should they be free to wave their magic wands wherever and whenever they feel, and women bear the brunt o the burder of childrearing and childbearing? Have we not moved at all from Sparrow’s “put your daughter inside Ms. Miriam, mi boy looking for trouble, if mi boy child damage yu gyrl chile doh hold me responsible,” and “Cock a rooster?”
It is time we hold men responsible for the children they procreate, while preaching responsible sexuality to all, including women.
Mr. Mungalsingh and other psuedo-sociologists need to look at crime from the point of view of mis-education, unemployment, and endemic poverty. This happens in overcrowded city areas as well as way out in the country where the abandonned woman may farm out her children to others to raise.
Crime tends to occur in crowded areas all over the world, but there are different crimes for crowded cities, and other areas.
Monitor the papers’ reports about crime and see for yourselves.
Meanwhile, men should leave women’s childbearing ability alone. It is the one thing we have that they absolutely cannot do.
I once met a taxi driver on another island who boasted about his twenty children with about six women. I asked him about childsupport.
“That is dey mudders’ problems. I does carry some milk and flour when I able, but the children is really theirs.”
This attitude is a major part of our problem in the Caribbean, not just in Trinidad.
I think men in Trinidad should be given incentive to have vasectomies. Too many children who don’t know who their fathers are exist. The breakdown of the family unit is one of the major contributing factors to crime.
The truth is like what fissureman said…from the time someone says something that goes against the pseudo-christian norm, everyone is up in arms without even stopping to think. A similar thing happened a couple years ago when Manning said to watch TV instead of have children. While the media made it sound more stupid than it actually was, he had a point. But ignorant people (usually the ones with more mouths than they can feed) were angry and said he had no business telling them what to do in their bedrooms. They prefer to have, as they call it, numerous blessings form God. But what they don’t realise is that if there is a God, he does not look kindly upon people who don’t feed, clothe and educate their blessings.
Mungalsingh was born about two centuries too late for his mindset, or about 7 decades away from his ideological niche on the European Continent. Let’s not beat about the bush and pretend we are unaware of where he was coming from. He justifies the fear expressed by Guyanese writer Kean Gibson in her book “Cycle of Racial Oppression”. They did not get rid of him because of what he said. They got rid of him for airing their thoughts in public.
This guy is not talking about birth control. This guy is talking about controlling the growth of a specific ethnic population group. If he believes that some innocent fetuses bshould not be brought to term, how far is that away from the next step of liquidating them after they have had an existence independent of their mother. This is not about crime or birth control. This is about unadultrated ethnic hatred being exposed via a freudian slip.
I guess Mr. Manning was also trying to stem the growth of only one ethinc group with his comments? Some people should try walking around to the other side of the one-way mirror and have a look.
I am always against abortion because it is a sin to kill an innocent child.;-: