Ruminations this week extend our congratulations to a special woman – Honourable Gail Teixeira – on being recognized by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association for distinguished contributions as a Member of Parliament, and her contributions to the development of Guyana.
Guyana has had some phenomenal women throughout its history. Perhaps among the most globally well-known women from the Caribbean is the late Janet Jagan, who, among other things, served as President of Guyana. Janet is one of the five women who served as Head-of-State in the Caribbean. While perhaps the best known around the world, Janet Jagan is just one of many phenomenal Guyanese women who have made major contributions and whose lives have made a difference for their country and people.
Among those women is Gail Teixeira. Like Janet Jagan, Gail has often been deemed the Iron Lady.
President Irfaan Ali took time to acknowledge this, and paid tribute to Gail. Gail has been a mentor and a role model, and President Ali rightfully recognized this. President Ali spoke for all of us when he took time out of his busy schedule to add his own words of recognition for this phenomenal woman, whose work has been simply iconic by any standard. I am hopeful that Speaker Nadir would provide an opportunity in the House for members to pay homage to this phenomenal woman, and that present members of Parliament would be able to acknowledge the work of Gail Teixeira.
There can be absolutely no dispute that Gail Teixeira is a Guyanese woman of worth who has made iconic contribution to her country. With more than three decades of service in Parliament, she is on her way to becoming one of the longest serving female members of Parliament in the world. It therefore is fitting that she has been the recipient of a distinguished award from the 67th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC), which took place in Perth, Australia, on November 7, 2024.
The Commonwealth Parliamentarian Lifetime Achievement Award is one of the premier awards for a member of parliament. The award was presented to Minister Gail Teixeira while she was busy working in Guyana. But her colleagues: the Speaker of the House, Manzoor Nadir; Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag; MP Ganesh Mahipaul; and Clerk of the Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, were present.
If there is presently a woman MP anywhere in the world who deserves the award, it has to be Gail Teixeira. In fact, she did not receive the award as a woman MP. She received the award as an MP, having distinguished herself among both her male and female colleague MP.
If my memory serves me well, Gail Teixeira has served in Parliament for more than 32 years. She has served as Minister of Health; Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport; Minister of Home Affairs, and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance. She has also served as the Government Whip since 2006, and as Opposition Whip between 2015 and 2020.
I served with Gail Teixeira as an MP for almost 20 years while I was Minister of Health and Minister of Agriculture. Whenever there was a special select committee in parliament during the time we served together, it was almost a given that we would both be members of that committee. For this reason, people jokingly – or sometimes even mockingly – referred to us as “committee man” and “committee woman”.
Gail took the responsibility of serving in special select committees as both an honour and privilege. As an MP, whether on the floor or as a committee member, no MP was better prepared to contribute. She kept meticulous record, and did extensive research. While we served together, I can recall the very many times we were “talking parliament” at two and three in the morning.
While not talked about enough, one of her most distinguished achievements in Parliament was her piloting of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, which came into effect around 1995. It was one of the first “abortion” laws in CARICOM and in the Commonwealth. Even twenty years later, it remains one of the most progressive medical termination acts in the world. But while the act itself was a major achievement, the process of enacting the legislation, which was signed into law by President Cheddi Jagan, was itself a lesson in participatory parliamentary practice. The parliament worked as a team, with Government and Opposition MPs consulting on the finalization of the bill before its presentation, and then with a special select committee that held hearings, inviting the public to have their voices heard. Gail Teixeira, as Minister of Health, chaired the special select committee alongside a co-chair, MP Faith Harding, who was the shadow minister of health. Later, as Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Guyana’s present UN Ambassador in New York, Carolyn Rodrigues, followed the example in enacting the Amerindian Act.
As the advisor on Governance, and as Minister of Governance, Gail Teixeira has pioneered the governance landscape in Guyana. She has already spearheaded two Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs) for human rights through the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, and is presently preparing for her third UPR in early 2025. Very few MPs and ministers in the world has had the honour of spearheading three separate UPRs in their careers. This in itself is a remarkable achievement.
It is not easy to be a recipient of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Lifetime Achievement Award. The recipient must have served at least 20 years as an MP; has had an impressive record as an MP; promoted freedom and democracy, and contributed to positive change in his or her country. Gail has more than met the qualification. All of Guyana should be proud of this phenomenal woman.
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