Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
May 19, 2013 Features / Columnists, My Column
The issue of the radio licence is simply not going away and the government seems inclined to accept that the allocation of radio frequencies by then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, was flawed. Indeed, when one examines the statements issued by the government by way of explanation, anyone who has no knowledge of the actual transactions would be inclined to say that the government did everything by the book.
I know of many things that were done by the book and these were all wrong. The government also knows that this has been the case when it was in opposition. I go back to the days when the then People’s National Congress banned food imports. That happened because Guyana simply did not have the money to pay for the imports, so there should have been nothing wrong. Yet the then opposition saw everything wrong and made a lot of noise about this.
As fate would have it time has proven that decision right, because some of the foods the country now produces would never have seen the light of day. Examples can be found in the home grown tomatoes, celery, eschallot, salt fish and the host of ground provisions that now flood the marketplace. I hasten to say that there have always been the ground provisions, but people rushed to buy the imported potato.
Today the potato sells less than the eddo, plantain, cassava, and the other edible root crops. Farmers are richer and the nation is saving money to the extent that other countries in the region are investing money in Guyana to grow food.
Then there is the current example of paying super salaries to people who are friendly to the government. We all know what the standard wage and salary should be and we all know how hard we must work to obtain the best pay. Dr Cheddi Jagan came into office and attacked those whom he said were in receipt of super salaries.
It is not wrong to pay people super salaries, but when one looks at the conditions under which this is done, one is left to shudder. People get tons of money for doing little or nothing.
Take the house lot distribution. There is a clause that no one should dispose of a Government-allocated house lot before ten years have elapsed. However, President Jagdeo and many others disposed of similar house lots in the twinkling of an eye and procured another.
Needless to say, the government would say that the second house lots were done in a manner that is in keeping with standard distribution practices. Truth is, that it was unfair. Labourer, Jannat Singh, would not have been able to dispose of his $58,000 lot and get another one before the ten years were up.
To say that the radio frequencies were distributed according to the geographic spread and across the ethnic divide is true, but it is a dishonest exhibition of the truth. To say that they were allocated to people who had the economic wherewithal to make use of the licences is also not incorrect but a blind truth. Many others who had the economic wherewithal were denied. People would not have applied if they did not have the economic wherewithal. Do Stabroek News, Kaieteur News, Enrico Woolford and a host of others not have the economic wherewithal?
“Eleven radio broadcast licences were allocated in 2011 to applicants who are resident Guyanese nationals and who had formally indicated their interest in radio production.” This is an untruth. One of those awarded five frequencies, Ruth Baljit, actually lives in the Bronx. She is the sister of a Government Minister and her sister-in-law is President Jagdeo’s niece.
The truth and only unquestionable truth about this entire episode is what the government wrote to the Trinidad Express. “Guyana’s laws and sovereignty provide for the head of state to have the final say on the matter.” And his final say is the bone of contention and the bane of those who were denied.
Of the eleven awardees, three got five frequencies—the People’s Progressive Party to which the then president belongs; the same Ruth Baljit; and to President Jagdeo’s best friend, Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop.
The interesting thing is that these people, by accident of birth, are of one ethnicity. When the inequitable allocation of frequency was publicized, the government opted to wage a campaign against the protestors by accusing them of racism. Could highlighting the people who got the lion’s share of the frequency be considered a racist attack? Such is the dishonesty that surrounds the defence of the issue.
The government told the Trinidad Express, “The list of persons issued with licences includes persons who are unlikely to have any affiliation with the former president or loyalty to the ruling party.” That too is another lie. With the exception of Rudolph Grant and Alfro Alphonso and Sons and Haslyn Graham of Linden, all the others have close ties to President Jagdeo and the ruling party.
I would suppose that three out of eleven is an equitable political spread in the same way that three five-frequency allocations out of eleven is fair and just, especially when the three are all closely linked to President Jagdeo and his political party.
One senior Government official actually said to me that the allocation of the frequencies is indefensible. Another said to me, “I have no option but to defend the government and the party on this issue, although I believe otherwise.” These are people with a conscience.
I do not expect Kaieteur News or Stabroek News to be granted a frequency in this dispensation. After all, the government has taken the position that these entities, “cuss us every day and if they get a radio frequency they will cuss us every minute.”
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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