When an unflattering Facebook photograph of Gina Tillett, president of the People’s United Party (PUP) women’s group, was published on the front page of the United Democratic Party’s organ, the Guardian newspaper, last week Thursday, it was roundly denounced by the women of the PUP.
In response to the picture and article, captioned “PUP Role Model,” the women issued a press release condemning its publication, and delivered a letter to the National Women’s Commission yesterday morning by hand, addressed to the Executive Director, Ann-Marie Williams, expressing disapproval of the vile use of an image, which, they say, did not only invade the privacy of a Belizean woman to the point where it degraded her dignity, but which was also a distasteful act that could have only been accredited to raw political malice and venom.
The women were disappointed that Williams was not at her office, because, they said, she was told in advance that they were coming to see her, to ask the commission to join them in condemning the publication, and they also expressed their disappointment in the Women’s National Commission for not having responded to the publication in the first instance.
“In fact, your organization should have been the first to condemn such a publication, which would send a signal to ALL Belizean women, that the National Commission and the WIP Project will not condone such a despicable act, and that you are prepared to stand up for them, not only in a month where women are being celebrated and celebrating, but all the times,” read the letter, signed by the Deputy Party Leader of the Opposition, Carolyn Trench-Sandiford.
Late this evening, however, Williams, apparently capitulating to severe criticism for her inaction, sent out a terse press release that read, in part, “The National Women’s Commission (NWC) met on Tuesday [sic], March 22, 2011, in its regular meeting and denounced as distasteful and unacceptable a front page photograph of a woman appearing in the Sunday, March 20 issue of The Guardian newspaper.”
The events began unfolding earlier, when, in solidarity, Trench-Sandiford today called on the women of Belize to join in a walk from Independence Hall, situated on Queen Street, to the Women’s Commission office, located on Hudson Street, to deliver the letter denouncing the publication of the Facebook picture.
At around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Trench-Sandiford, attorney Dolores Balderamos Garcia, and attorney Lisa Shoman, accompanied by other PUP women supporters, assembled in front of their headquarters, Independence Hall on Queen Street.
The walk from there to Hudson Street took approximately 20 minutes, and when the women arrived at the office of the Women’s Commission, they took the elevator, which took them to the building’s third floor, only to find that the door to Suite 303, the Women’s Commission’s office, had been locked from inside.
According to the PUP women, Williams, the Executive Director of the National Women’s Commission, knew that they were coming to hand-deliver the letter.
Trench-Sandiford knocked on the door, and when the door was opened, she was told by Williams’ executive assistant that Williams was not in the building.
Trench-Sandiford was told to leave the letter, but she refused to do so from outside the corridor, and requested to go inside the office.
Eventually, she was let inside; meanwhile the women PUP supporters waited outside the hallway. The media was shut out.
Trench-Sandiford conveyed her disappointment in the Women’s National Commission for keeping silent with regards to the publication, and informed the assistant of her desire to personally hand-deliver the letter to Williams, and also stated that they were still prepared to meet with Williams to discuss the issue so that it is never again repeated.
About 20 minutes later, Trench-Sandiford exited the office, and the women later left by taking the stairs.
“We felt that having seen that article that was published in the Guardian newspaper, that as an organization that is an advocate , that has aggressively been advocating for women’s participation in political leadership, that they should have been at the forefront in terms of condemning that publication.
“As I said before, it is distasteful, it is disgusting, it is repugnant, and it ought to have never happened,” said Trench-Sandiford.
According to Shoman, the photograph was published for one purpose — to attempt to humiliate and degrade the president of the PUP women’s group.
The editor of the Guardian, Alfonso Noble, has said, however, that he will not apologize for publishing the image.
According to Noble, certain persons holding certain positions are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that is befitting their positions. And he stated that the only reason for publishing the picture was to highlight that Tillett is a public figure, and that it had nothing to do with Tillett being a man or a woman.
“You have to understand that this lady is a leading political figure in the People’s United Party . She in fact holds the position of being the president of the women’s group of the People’s United Party, and as such I think she ought to have conducted herself in a manner that is becoming of that position first of all. That picture has its genesis at Facebook. Facebook, for those who don’t know, it is a national and international forum.
“I don’t even know who Gina Tillett is personally …I will not offer an apology for what I did. I remain with my position,” said Noble.
According to Noble, the women of the People’s United Party have a right to express their disapproval of the publication, but that he has not so far been contacted by the office of the Women’s Commission.
Ann-Marie Williams, we note, has run for political office within the UDP before. She was editor-in-chief of The People’s Pulse, the precursor to the UDP’s The Guardian.
In December 2002, she lost a convention to Wayne Usher, who faced David Fonseca in the 2003 mayoral elections. She was visibly upset with Party Leader Dean Barrow after the convention.
She was appointed to the post in the NWC in July 2008.