The PPP insulted this nation by giving it a visionless leader

Sep 02, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
First, it was Stabroek News being victimized by the Government with the withdrawal of ads for its persistent reportage on incidents the Government wanted locked down from public knowledge.
Now, we have the President urging the local private sector to stop advertising with the local private dailies, but especially Kaieteur News, because he thinks their coverage of the wrongs in his Government are giving Guyana a bad rap with overseas readers of Guyana’s Internet dailies. Which newspaper is next on the President’s short list for some serious tongue-lashing and threats of patronage withdrawal, the Guyana Chronicle?
Don’t think for one moment that because Chronicle is state-owned he won’t take it to task, because given the President’s obsessive-compulsive fixation on always wanting the media to help present a positive image of him and his Government, no matter how terrible the mess that lurks beneath the façade, he just may one day publicly scold Chronicle for not doing a far more effective job at countering the impact the private newspapers are making on readers at home and abroad with their ‘inside scoop’ news reports.
My take after reading the article, “President accuses KN of fabrication,” (August 30), is that it has to be bothering the President greatly, even if he is not saying so openly, that even though his Government has made available enormous resources and ready access to its state-owned media entities, these entities are failing to make the kind of impression the President wants.
However, rather than put his own media houses in order to achieve the results he wants or even use the news reports from the private media to take corrective action in his Government, the President would rather lower his standard and lash out at the private media for doing their job in helping to keep Government honest with the people.
He is basically admitting the independent media are doing an effective job with the truth!
Still, how can urging the private sector to stop buying advertisements in Stabroek News and Kaieteur News not be seen by the private sector as a brazen attempt by the President to dictate to and interfere with the independence of the private sector?
In fact, how could the President not see that the private media in Guyana are part of the very private sector he is urging to boycott newspaper ad space? Just as a house divided against itself cannot stand, a private sector that divides itself to satisfy a mean-spirited and insensitive President will not survive.
And when we stop to carefully consider what it is the President is so up in arms against KN about, it really boils down to a storm in a tea cup. The President literally used a KN’s news report that one of the GDF Coast Guardsmen involved in the Ramdass murder said he was at Lindo Creek when the miners were killed, and tried to make this apparent error of fact the lynchpin of his scathing attack against KN as a newspaper that fabricates or manufactures stories. Baloney! KN basically reported what was said, and even if its source was wrong, it won’t be the first newspaper in the world to quote an incorrect source.
To the President and his political lackeys, how important is that apparently erroneous report compared with all the other recent news stories that have punched massive holes in this Government’s credibility on accountability with the people’s monies? Did KN manufacture these shocking revelations that make the Government look like it literally facilitates corruption even as it selectively seeks out certain state employees to undergo polygraph testing? And when the President said he will defend newspapers rights even to publish lies, is he not contradicting himself when he then turns around and slams the private newspapers for printing lies? How does a man this self-conflicting ever live with himself?
The President needs to stop trying to insult the intelligence of Guyanese readers of the country’s independent newspapers, because his temper tantrums are only exposing him as insecure, hostile and intellectually bankrupt. Even those who felt he was being honest when he defended his Government’s position to withdraw ads from Stabroek News by inferring SN’s circulation was lower than the other dailies and the state wants more bang for its buck, now have to wake up and realise that this new call to businesses to boycott Kaieteur News confirms what others have long said about the President’s real position of the SN ads withdrawal. Truly, the PPP insulted this struggling nation by giving it a visionless President who has a propensity for vindictiveness because he possesses a childish mentality.
Most world leaders grow into their jobs, inculcating matured traits in the process that can help them to stand out as leaders, but after 10 years on the job, Guyana’s President has demonstrated that leadership is not something he ever expected, let alone leadership of a nation where diversity of opinions is to be expected in a democracy. Matter of fact, his style of leadership fits neatly with what we have come to witness with dictatorships everywhere, and I have to say it again – not to be repetitive, but to lay greater emphasis – if it weren’t for a steadfast and strong private media in Guyana, this country would have been farther down the same road we spent 28 years trying to exit. To the private sector, we seriously cannot afford to lose Guyana’s independent media.
Look, Guyana belongs to the people of Guyana; not the President and certainly not any political party! No Government has all the power in any truly democratic country, and that’s why we have checks and balances, but more importantly, that is why we have elections, because this is not an exercise to be taken lightly if we want to keep our Government in check in between elections. If we, the people, don’t wisely wield our power over Government, from election to election by publicly holding it accountable and responsible, it will wield power over us and strip us of our power! And very few things are more tragic in a country than a powerless and voiceless people.
Emile Mervin
Queens, New York

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