22.04.2018
Below is a copy of a Communiqué from the Muvman Liberasyon Fam. LALIT agrees that the President of the MNOC should be removed from office immediately.
The Muvman Liberasyon Fam calls for the immediate revocation of Mr. Philippe Hao Thyn Voon, President of the Mauritian National Olympic Committee after his reaction to athlete Jessika Rosun’s complaint of sex abuse by the chef de mission, Kaysee Teeroovengadum, at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.
The MNOC president’s initial attempt to cover up a possible criminal offense, and his admission, even as late as Friday at a Press Conference, that ideally the alleged offense should have been kept hidden, are already sufficient grounds for his immediate revocation. His preference for covering up this case of sex abuse is reportedly based on “une longue amitié” with the man accused, which means he should be revoked, or alternatively on the grounds that “nou tou pou sorti la perdan”, which also means he should be revoked. It is not acceptable to find excuses for covering up assault. Because the man does not seem to realize that physical sexual abuse is assault.
In addition, two of the comments the MNOC Chair made at the Press Conference are, on their own, sufficient for his revocation. He is reported to have said, he wants to know the entire episode, “pas ziss sa ti ‘pink-pinkou’ la” while with his hand doing a squeezing gesture. (Reported in a sports page editorial by Jennifer Pénélope-Lebrasse, L’Express, page 54 Saturday). This comment shows that Mr. Philippe Hao Thyn Voon does not think pinching someone’s bottom is sex abuse. This means he needs to be revoked urgently.
Another article in the same newspaper says he even asked Vivian Gungaram, President of the Mauritius Athletes Association, to remain silent about the case. This means he was in a conspiracy to do a cover-up. Fortunately, Mr. Gungaram did not fall into the cover-up.
He is even reported as bragging that he had asked Jessika “Ki lazou linn touse?”
How many grounds do you need to revoke this man immediately?
The lawyers in the case also need to be a little more cautious. The days of male predators being covered-up by webs of male colluders are now numbered. Mr. Navin Proag, advocate for the MNOC and thus for Mr. Philippe Hao Thyn Voon, for example, is quoted as assuring the public that he will see that the principle of innocence until proven guilty will prevail, which is a strange thing to say when he is not representing Mr. Teeroovengadum, and when it is in any case the way the law of the land works. The lawyer should be assuring everyone in the country that women’s basic human rights and constitutional rights to “integrity of the body” will be respected, especially if he represents the MNOC.
Mr. Rama Valayden, lawyer of Kaysee Teeroovengadum, is also acting like a protector of male predators when he threatens the victim in the Press that he has a defense based on “documents and photographs” (L’Express, 16 April). Unless he has a photograph showing that it was someone else’s hand being predatory in the specific event, the threats are no more than macho bluster. And macho bluster has, in the past six months, been exposed for what it is: patriarchal violence. This idea that you can threaten women in this scurrilous way is no longer acceptable.
In the meantime, the MLF expresses solidarity with Ms. Jessika Rosun.
Lindsey Collen
for the MLF
21 April, 2018