…says he is not a credible journalist

Kaieteur News – Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, at the sidelines of an event on Tuesday, called out Makhail Rodrigues, better known as the ‘Guyanese Critic’, for “abusive” and “vulgar” comments he made about her during his live morning show aired on Facebook.

‘Critic’ called the education minister, a jack*** and a**h*ole for condemning the decision to remand Daniel Wharton, popularly known as ‘Baby Skello’, for allegedly singing a song that was blasphemous about a Hindu goddess.

While Manickchand condemned the song, she still defended Baby Skello’s right to pre-trial liberties.

“We are jailing someone for mumbling or trying to sing something offensive against a female goddess (which was terrible and should never be encouraged or listened to and which I personally condemned) but failing to address speedily DV (domestic violence) matters where women are at the mercy of the court, failing to address matters of cyber bullying where women’s nude photographs are published online without their consent and other truly egregious crimes against women,” the minister said in a Facebook post last week.

The ‘Guyanese Critic’, during his morning show, attacked the minister for her views on the ‘Baby Skello’ matter in a “vulgar” and “abusive” way, saying “She is supposed to be the last bady (person) to be defending Baby Skello.”

In response, Manichand said, ‘Critic’ is “an idiot” and “not a journalist”.

“What the critic fellow said was ignorant, as in it, did not have contained facts. It was vulgar, it was abusive, it was profane, and it was uncalled for. All of that makes that a crime against the State under the cybercrime legislation,” Manickchand said, while adding that if she were to waste her time to file a complaint against him, she would still fight for his pre-trial liberties.

“If he were charged, and he went before the court, two things were happening: One, he would get bail, which would reinforce my point that these things are not applied consistently, and we need to get to that place, or he would not get bail, and he would be thrown into jail until his remand, until his next hearing date. And if that were to happen, I would find it absolutely ridiculous, and as much as I think he’s an idiot, and not credible and not a journalist,” the minister said.

The minister said that the ‘Guyanese Critic’ is trying to twist what she said in the condemnation of Baby Skello’s remand and called him a bully.

“I wouldn’t bother too much with him, but I will say this. He’s a bully, and there are very many bullies like that. In households across this country,” the minister said before adding, “And to the girls and women who have to put up with people like that, I say, defend yourself, and deal with them.”

Minister Manickchand concluded that ‘Critic’ is a “stupidy Bill”.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2025/06/18/education-minister-calls-critic-an-idiot/