Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 14, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
When Charrandass Persaud voted for the no confidence motion (NCM), that was the lead story and the lead photo was the face of Persaud with the word “Judas.” Chronicle insiders told me the directive came from the same man who ousted David Hinds and Lincoln Lewis from the column pages of the Chronicle.
The lead story for the Chronicle was the ceremony for the opening up of the PNC Region Three campaign office. That was the lead photo too. For the Saturday, February 9 edition, the lead was the bomb threat call made to UG with the face of the UG student accused of the act with the bold headline; “Niece of a PPP leader arrested for bomb threat.”
Obviously the angle had an intention. Two days later, that is, Monday, February 11, it was front page news again with the same size of photograph of the young lady.
Since the NCM was passed, NCN has not featured any opposition MP or member of civil society on its interview programme. Enrico Woolford has only ministers as his guests. All have argued in the same vein about the NCM.
This was the same Woolford, if I remember, who was pushed out of his job at the same state television after the PPP won in 1992. I hope the same fate does not meet Woolford in 2019. But then again, humans are essentially foolish people who never learn from the mistakes of the past.
Two things this country needs to be reminded off. The first one to note is that the APNU+AFC captured 33 seats in Parliament gaining the Region Eight parliamentary representative by one vote. I did not leave out the word, “hundred” or “thousand” before the word “votes”. Yes, one vote. The APNU-AFC was elected to govern by less than 5000 ballots.
You have to be a fool to assume that was a solid mandate to administer state affairs. But this is how the APNU-AFC has governed. If the Court of Appeal does not grant a stay until the Caribbean Court of Appeal finally decides on the fate of the signatories of the Cummingsburg Accord, then there has to be a quick election.
To postpone the poll there has to be a two-thirds vote in the House. The PPP will not be generous and allow the government to use the Chronicle and NCN as propaganda tools as what is currently taking place. One suspects that as soon as the conference to extend the election begins, and the customary handshakes are done, the PPP delegation is going to zero in on how the Chronicle and NCN should report political news.
The second thing that Guyana should note is that the APNU and AFC sitting as the parliamentary majority after the minority presidency of Ramotar, cut the budget for GINA and NCN in the national estimates of 2012. The AFC then held countrywide meetings to explain these cuts and others.
I will always remember that campaign of which I was one of the speakers for two reasons. In Berbice at one of the outings, Chris Ram lost his voice and had to curtail his delivery. And Gerhard Ramsaroop was poised for political greatness because he was very good as a speaker and Indian folks took to him tremendously.
The PPP brought out the employees of NCN and GINA to picket parliament accusing the AFC and APNU of starving the employees of NCN and GINA. The AFC and APNU stood their ground. They argued that NCN and GINA were funded by tax payers and should not get one cent because the PPP government had turned them into propaganda organs. There is a video of some of us on Youtube from the Coalition for the 1823 Monument picketing NCN.
Look how political vagaries show their faces. How does Khemraj Ramjattan face himself when he looks into the mirror? Today, the very NCN and GINA (now styled DPI), take on the face of ownership by the APNU and AFC. I plan to do a column on Clive Thomas on his transformation as a politician. I once voted for Thomas in a general election when he ran for the presidency. This very man had denounced Burnham and paramountcy of the party. The WPA fought paramoutcy of the party in both the eras of the PNC and PPP in government. The WPA and Thomas are now in power. Do I see traces of paramountcy of the party in the way the state media is administered? The three new parties must make the independence of the state media a campaign issue. The state media after the 2019 election should be governed by an independent committee.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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