Kangaloo fights back

PRESIDENT Christine Kangaloo is both wrong and right to question whether gender plays a role in her presidency.

She is wrong to suggest, as she did on July 8, that her male comparators were not as strongly criticised. But she is right to point out the relevance of gender in leadership generally.

Ms Kangaloo’s invocation of the ghost of ANR Robinson to respond to criticism faced by her is tin-eared.

“I have sometimes allowed myself to wonder whether the difference in my case is that I am one of only two women to have been President, and whether the reason that the only other former politician to have become president was spared the attacks that have been visited upon me is that he was male,” she said in a roundabout fashion during an address at the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business’ Women in Leadership Conference.

However, history records that Mr Robinson was subject to widespread attacks during his tenure over a range of issues, from failing to appoint senators to his infamous “moral and spiritual values” decision.

Further, Mr Robinson’s successor, George Maxwell Richards, was roundly criticised for his bungling of Integrity Commission matters. Anthony Carmona fell out with the PNM over SSA legislation.

If Ms Kangaloo feels she should be subject to universal acclaim by dint of her office, she is mistaken.

Not only is the presidency no sacred cow, but the old rules that shielded a president from scrutiny no longer apply.

The late Reginald Dumas was responsible for a watershed lawsuit, which in 2017 affirmed that presidents must now answer in court, too, in addition to the court of public opinion. Presidents are no monarchs.

The contentious question of the role of independent senators has arisen not only in relation to Ms Kangaloo. An independent appointed by Prof Richards was lambasted for claiming their job was not to “thwart” the government; by Carmona for Facebook posts.

Where Ms Kangaloo is on solid ground, however, is in raising the dynamic of gender in politics more widely.

For while the top three government posts are today held by women, that masks troubling trends.

At least half the population are female, yet, after the April 28 general election, females occupy only 25 per cent of the Parliament.

And the problem is on all sides, notwithstanding leadership.

Very often, women are attacked for raising “the gender card.” When personal status is invoked in a way that does not seem applicable, this is perceived as making it harder for others.

The best outcome from Ms Kangaloo’s speech would be if it stokes a conversation about the need for female participation in politics.

Regardless of what you think of the President’s tenure, that is a conversation well worth having.