Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 20, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
President Granger has come to the defence of Minister Bulkan over the latter’s communication to the Chronicle, in which he suggested to the editors that they need to know their national duties and they fell down in that regard. The Minister was of the opinion that the Chronicle’s lead should have been on the swearing-in of the elected municipal officers in Guyana rather than the reporting on oil and gas.
One would want to believe that the President knows that context is everything in life. There can be no action or policy that emerges without a contextual canopy. Against all that the state media have gone through from President Burnham right down to President Ramotar, the new government had to know that it was a sensitive issue, so Ministers had to tread carefully in their relation to the State media. They are ministers and the state media could easily buckle under their emanations, even if those outpourings are not intended to intimidate. Context becomes overwhelming in such a situation.
President Granger defended the Minister and went into a polemical direction that will be intriguing to watch as his years in the presidency move on. But first, his seminal mistake; the President said that Mr. Bulkan wrote in his personal capacity. But the letter I saw in the Chronicle, he signed as Minister of Communities. There is an enormous legal difference here. When I wrote letters to the newspapers and signed my name then put my university status, UG rejected that.
I was written to by the then Vice-Chancellor, James Rose, to say that I must not put my UG designation, because it could be interpreted that I am speaking on behalf of the university. I go on talk shows and I make it clear that I am there in my own capacity as a public person and not as the columnist from Kaieteur News.
Officials all the time make it clear that they are speaking in their personal capacity, without the presence of their occupational status. A priest from any religion should make it clear that his words on a controversial issue are his own feelings and do not represent his denomination. Nowhere in his letter, did the minister mention that his missive was his own personal thoughts.
The second mistake the President made was to not observe that the minister wrote the Chronicle about an event in which the minister was a central player. It is not that the Minister opined on an episode of which he had no connection whatsoever. If he had chastised the Chronicle for carrying the story of Mahendra Dhoni on its front page, and not that of Chris Gayle, it would have been another matter, altogether. But let’s move to the direction that the President went.
What the President has done in coming to the side of Minister Bulkan is to open up a vista of intellectual innovation that could engender a philosophical climate in this country. He indicated that ministers have personal opinions on things and they have the right to express those thoughts. I would like to see a polemic that demolishes that postulation. Humans, whether they are officials in a church, a government, a commercial bank, etc., must have the right to their own inner feelings as separate from the title they hold.
One hopes that since the declaration of the right to personal adumbrations by the President, we will see such thoughts coming from the President himself, all his ministers, all party leaders, all public sector heads, etc. They must be careful to say that this is their personal opinion. So we can safely say that the Head of the GRA, Forestry Commission, Police Force, NIS, Bank of Guyana, etc., can offer their personal opinion on homosexuality, the marijuana possession penalty, the Carter/Price formulation of GECOM, cost of produce at the local markets, the shape of things at UG, etc.
If I used to attend the Public Interest programme in which the President takes questions from selected journalists, I would have asked him a few questions from his private mind, and not in his capacity as President of the Republic.
I end with some of my questions: Do you think robbery with violence should carry bail but not possession of ten grams of marijuana? Do you think the administrative structure of UG is very top heavy for such a small university? Do you think Raphael Trotman was accurate when at an AFC press conference he said you and not the AFC appointed three ministers from the said AFC?
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 28, 2024
Minister Ramson challenge athletes to better last year’s performance By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – Guyana’s 23-member contingent for the CARIFTA Games in Grenada is set to depart the...B.V. Police Station Kaieteur News – The Beterverwagting Police Station, East Coast Demerara (ECD) will be reconstructed... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – In the face of escalating global environmental challenges, water scarcity and... 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]