Sheila Holder
Prime Ministerial candidate for the small Alliance For Change (AFC) opposition party, Ms. Sheila Holder, is facing a dim political future over her concocted survey on the country’s old age pensioners list, observers said yesterday. She is pressing to remove more than 17,000 old age pensioners from the national register, claiming during the recent debate on the 2011 national budget in the National Assembly that they do not exist.
A senior Social Worker, who did not want to be named, said Holder’s latest call for the names of old age pensioners to be published online is ludicrous and amounts to a misunderstanding of the real world.
“You can’t publish people’s personal data on the internet; it is against confidentiality rules and norms, and more than that all kinds of mischief could be done,” the Social Worker said.
During the budget debate, Minister of Human Services, Ms. Priya Manickchand, exposed the AFC survey which she described as mischievous. The AFC Members of Parliament were absent from the debate at the time of her presentation.
In her presentation, the minister invited Members of Parliament to peruse the register which was piled up in front of her.
Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Robert Corbin, took up the challenge, went across to the minister and uplifted a portion of the register which he took back to his seat and perused.
Statistical experts have disputed the AFC so-called study, saying Holder missed the mark on numbers.
This newspaper, in a check, found no record that Holder is a statistician or that she has any expertise in the area of surveys, casting further doubt on the study she claimed she did.
The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has a list of 42,000 persons who receive old age pensions monthly.
Dozens of pensioners have since lashed out against the AFC for what they consider to be that party’s latest blunder.
Pensioner Gladwyn Green said, “I think that it’s totally wrong…cut off old age pension is out of the question.”
Another pensioner, Morris Gladstone, said, “They have to prove that they don’t exist.”
Holder has not yet presented evidence to dispute the ministry’s charge that she misinterpreted the statistics she claimed to have used in her purported survey and observers said she has a huge task to try to prop up her credentials as a political leader who can be taken seriously by voters in this election year.
She was picked as running mate for AFC presidential candidate, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, after leader Mr. Raphael Trotman declined to run with him, citing medical and personal reasons.
Party members said they were shocked at Trotman’s refusal, deepening speculation about a serious rift between the two men that surfaced early last year.
Sources said many in the party were expecting a Ramjattan-Trotman ticket and several members tried in vain to get Trotman to change his stand after he declined running with Ramjattan.
One insider suggested that by standing down, Trotman would not be blamed if the AFC does poorly at the 2011 elections.
A senior Social Worker, who did not want to be named, said Holder’s latest call for the names of old age pensioners to be published online is ludicrous and amounts to a misunderstanding of the real world.
“You can’t publish people’s personal data on the internet; it is against confidentiality rules and norms, and more than that all kinds of mischief could be done,” the Social Worker said.
During the budget debate, Minister of Human Services, Ms. Priya Manickchand, exposed the AFC survey which she described as mischievous. The AFC Members of Parliament were absent from the debate at the time of her presentation.
In her presentation, the minister invited Members of Parliament to peruse the register which was piled up in front of her.
Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Robert Corbin, took up the challenge, went across to the minister and uplifted a portion of the register which he took back to his seat and perused.
Statistical experts have disputed the AFC so-called study, saying Holder missed the mark on numbers.
This newspaper, in a check, found no record that Holder is a statistician or that she has any expertise in the area of surveys, casting further doubt on the study she claimed she did.
The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has a list of 42,000 persons who receive old age pensions monthly.
Dozens of pensioners have since lashed out against the AFC for what they consider to be that party’s latest blunder.
Pensioner Gladwyn Green said, “I think that it’s totally wrong…cut off old age pension is out of the question.”
Another pensioner, Morris Gladstone, said, “They have to prove that they don’t exist.”
Holder has not yet presented evidence to dispute the ministry’s charge that she misinterpreted the statistics she claimed to have used in her purported survey and observers said she has a huge task to try to prop up her credentials as a political leader who can be taken seriously by voters in this election year.
She was picked as running mate for AFC presidential candidate, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, after leader Mr. Raphael Trotman declined to run with him, citing medical and personal reasons.
Party members said they were shocked at Trotman’s refusal, deepening speculation about a serious rift between the two men that surfaced early last year.
Sources said many in the party were expecting a Ramjattan-Trotman ticket and several members tried in vain to get Trotman to change his stand after he declined running with Ramjattan.
One insider suggested that by standing down, Trotman would not be blamed if the AFC does poorly at the 2011 elections.
This women need some mental help.How do she expect the personal information of people to be publish on the world wide net.
ReplyDeleteThis is what the AFC want to do to the citizen of this country if the get in power take bread out of the elderly mouth,publish citizen personal information on the world wide net etc.
ReplyDeleteThis show that the people that makes up the AFC party have mental issue power issue or they are racial.
ReplyDeleteSheila and the AFC is a set of reckless individuals that don't think through none of the shit spewed everyday by their likeness. I'm not surprised by this new development of her career as a politician being in jeopardy due to the magnitude of her claims and poor source of arrival to her conclusion, it should be. Guyana doesn't need narrow minded people like this anywhere in our Parliament influencing crucial decision making for this country with direct reference to the people (old and young).
ReplyDelete