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Apr 17, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
It is not even one year since the Coalition Government has been in power, yet supporters and officials of the PNC, or if you want to say APNU, have manifested disturbing signs of an old culture that has been with this country from the time the PPP and PNC competed for power in the early fifties. One can forgive such dangerous expressions and egregious deportment three or four years from now, but not a mere eleven months after the PPP was removed from office.
Surely, to use that kind of language so soon after the PPP leaders used it must be offensive, unacceptable and morally indefensible. From the time the Joe Harmon imbroglio hit the news stands, the language of some PNC officials was identical with the semantics of the PPP leaders. It included the following; “conspiracy to bring down Mr. Harmon”; “witch-hunt by the press”; “irresponsibility of the press”; “ulterior motive of some to get Mr. Harmon.” Just eleven months ago, these identical semantics were used by the PPP leaders against Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, Prime News, Capitol News and Demerara Waves, among others
Just eleven months ago, Mr. Harmon, and all PNC and APNU leaders were stretched out across Guyana sharing with the Guyanese nation damaging material about the PPP Government that they got from the press, particularly the Kaieteur News. Year after year, before 2015, the independent press provided the people of Guyana information on corrupt government. Guyanese from all walks of life used that information to condemn the PPP, and it influenced the way they voted.
It is obnoxious for leaders, whether high or low in the PNC and APNU, to see a conspiracy to hurt the Coalition Government, when that very government partly owes its existence to the manner in which the press reported on authoritarian power under the PPP.
Then came the picketing exercise in front of the Kaieteur News. We never know what lies in store for us. But I can tell you this; if just eleven months after the PNC came to power, its supporters could mount a picket against a newspaper that rallied against the hegemony of the PPP autocrats, then the future of democratic power looks bleak.
Then came the Bobby Vieira outburst against the Stabroek News. That Mr. Vieira’s deportment could mirror the past behaviour of most PPP leaders, then time is surely not on the side of this country.
What Mr. Vieira did to the Stabroek News invokes memories of Robeson Benn. Benn pulled into NCN and ordered a calypso – the lyrics of which he didn’t appreciate – removed from the airwaves. The Stabroek News reported Mr. Vieira as saying that he could say whatever he wants, as he ordered the Stabroek News reporter out of a public place.
Which world was Mr. Vieira living in before May 2015? If he was living in the real world and followed events in his homeland, then he would have seen thousands of expressions of similar behaviour by PPP leaders as what he displayed. Is President Granger watching? These kinds of behavioural patterns, if they persist, will destroy Mr. Granger’s image of a good, decent leader. These negatives are coming into the face of the Guyanese people a mere eleven months after an historic election.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo’s image could go down the same path. The Chronicle refused two columns from its Sunday columnist, Dr. David Hinds. One of the columns, the Sunday editor, Neil Marks told me he had a problem with. One of the columns objected to any plan by the Coalition Government to employ Nanda Gopaul and Robert Persaud. The other piece was Hinds’ criticism of President Granger’s condemnation of the Rodney Report. What was wrong with Hinds’ two columns to warrant such censorship a mere eleven months after the Guyanese people voted to clean up the Chronicle?
I asked the chairman of the Chronicle Board, Ms. Jean La Rose, to read the two columns and offer me her opinion. She promised to do so then backtracked. She said the rejection of the two columns is a matter for the editorial department. She directed me to the Editor-in-Chief, Nigel Williams. I disagreed with Ms. La Rose. Dr. Hinds was censored and that is a policy matter for the Board. I asked Ms. La Rose if the policy of the Board is to reject racism and a column advocates racism, if that isn’t a Board matter. Again she disagreed.
We have new editors and a new board at the Chronicle. We have a new government in place, but Guyana’s destructive, undemocratic, old culture persists. Sooner rather than later it will kill off this country. The world may rejoice when that happens.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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