Latest update May 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 14, 2011 Editorial
The holders of certain political office are expected to carry themselves in a certain manner; behave in a certain manner and even speak publicly in a certain way. It would be strange to see President Bharrat Jagdeo in three-quarters jeans walking the streets with the waist slung to expose the upper portions of his buttocks or his boxers which seem to be the preferred underwear.
For a priest or a pastor to stand on a pulpit and use swear words to his or her congregation would create a riot among the congregation. A prisoner on the roof of the jail would attract attention and a judge hugging a prisoner during a trial or a prisoner sitting next to the judge would make international headlines.
And so it was that when President Jagdeo launched into a tirade against Kaieteur News and its publisher and editor, some people were stunned. It is not that presidents do not attack media houses but the choice of words is often sophisticated. And there is more, the attack is often confined to the subject matter at hand and rarely is it ad hominem.
Be that as it may, a head of state will never stoop to openly abusing one of his subjects unless that subject is a political opponent. Perhaps, Guyana is witnessing the dawn of a new era in political behaviour.
Many of us have been in countries where media houses are openly hostile to the government. The offshoot is that the government would withhold scoops from that media house but the relationship is often civil. Democratic governments know that the media can hurt them much more than they can hurt the media.
At the root of all this is corruption in Government. It was President Jagdeo who accused the media of being lazy and of not undertaking investigative reporting. And indeed he was correct. There was a preponderance of shoddily executed contracts but the media ignored these. The media preferred to focus on the sensational. Robberies, murders and rape were things that sold the newspaper.
Kaieteur News began to experience problems when it started to focus on shoddy contract work. For some strange reason, the government rushed to the defence of the contractors. This has never been done anywhere. Such actions by the contractors constitute fraud but the government never pursued any of them in the court.
In the end, contractors, when asked about the reason for sullying their reputation, would report that people holding high government office would demand a share of the contract fee. This meant that less money would be available of the work at hand.
Indeed, President Jagdeo would often say that some of the contractors should be blacklisted. This was an admission that they were defrauding the public treasury. The president was also critical of the pricing of some contracts. This is where things began to get sordid. Kaieteur News challenged the pricing of some of the contracts and the end result is that the President had leveled vituperation against the newspaper, its owner and its editor.
That the current editor of the newspaper was once the editor of New Nation, the political organ of the main opposition party, is tantamount to a criminal act. The Head of State has not sought to vilify any other editorial position. Suffice it to say that the late Janet Jagan also headed a political journal—the Mirror—and she went on to become president.
Kwame McCoy who was an apologist for the government on television is the Chief Government spokesperson to the point that he can lie and peddle falsehoods with impunity, much to the satisfaction of President Jagdeo. It must be true about what they say about birds and flocking.
McCoy sends out an All Fools Day message on April 13, 2011 and gets the state media to publish it. Perhaps for the state, every day is All Fools Day. Therefore, when President Jagdeo accuses the media of distortions he may be looking in the wrong direction. Perhaps being the head of state is a laborious thing and he simply cannot keep up with publications.
Yet those shortcomings should not detract from the fact that the President has demeaned the office he holds by behaving inappropriately. His successor is going to have a lot of mess to clean up.
Listen how to run an oil country
May 14, 2024
– Rugby Union peeved at silence from Government on request for National Park upgrade By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), under the guidance of its...Kaieteur News – Bharrat Jagdeo needs a refresher to be able to better differentiate between a party’s foundational... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Is it ever justifiable for journalism to fan the flames of geopolitical tension? This question arises... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]