Defending the indefensible

Apr 06, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The first indication that matters could get out of hand was the hour and a half notice. The second was that the venue for the press engagement was Leonora, the area in which President Ali was born and raised. The third was that actual space for the President and press interaction to take place was in a tent open to hundreds of PPP supporters. The fourth was that the President did nothing to stop what had clearly deteriorated into a hostile environment.

All these ingredients indicated a leader and government determined to bend the independent press to its will, by any means available. And, then to present for public consumption that nothing out of the ordinary occurred, that others have a right to freedom of speech, as well.

On any occasion, barring some unseen emergency, the fact that there was the prior 90-minute notice to the media based in Georgetown for the distant venue of Lenora, is itself troubling. When consideration is factored in about Guyana’s traffic woes, then those 90 minutes become a difficult undertaking. The Office of the President should not be insulted with media representatives arriving late, or at intervals, thus disturbing the peace of the President himself. It would be the height of disrespect to the highest office and officer in the land. Using the same standard, to extend a 90 minute prior notice to the media smacks of disrespect for the role that it plays at this crucial time in Guyana.

The Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister can spin, curl, and bend as much as such pleases him, but this is what that 90 minute notice to the press embodies. Then, for such a last minute decision to surface about a press interaction with the President in Leonora, of all places, smells of the mischief that was likely afoot, in the setup that was already in place. Though there may be a few people with dissenting views in the Leonora area, not one of those residents would be foolish enough to express objection publicly (or in the presence of the President), given the high probability of the frenzied reactions that are now part and parcel of the PPPC Government’s conduct, and what it has stoked in its supporters. To say this in the simplest manner: a Presidential press engagement in his place of birth, Leonora, could only have one result, which is what was had.

The minister may twist himself into barbwire, but there is no getting away from the fact that the media, especially certain sections of it, would be received in Leonora in the most hostile and aggressive fashion. Hostile and aggressive and intimidatory it was, despite the Minister’s fandango about freedom of expression that he so artfully weaves with “the peoples’ freedom to openly express dissatisfaction…” By this standard, others get to determine what issues are prioritised, and what questions may be asked about them. Then, only what is pleasing to the President and his PPPC Government gets to be tabled, are afforded the care due in clean and convincing answers. Under such circumstances, some issues would never get ventilated, leaving Guyanese to conclude that all is well, would suit the government fine.

It is understandable that Leonora residents may not wish to see their President, himself a former villager, ruffled and rattled through persistence with oil questions. But many in the population throughout the rest of Guyana, definitely have an interest in the answers not forthcoming, and the issues obscured, with their oil and gas patrimony.

Third, even though the media meeting had to be in Leonora, there can be no justification for members of the public (area residents) to be under the tent. The public is not allowed that nearness at the Convention Center, or in other media briefings. Only a free for all would result, which is what was, perhaps, premeditated, all related developments considered. Last, President Ali’s reaction to the several hundred heckling, pressing, intimidating voices of his supporters was not one of his finer moments. Presidents do not stand by idly, with body language projecting unconcern. They do not permit the dignity of their office or themselves to be desecrated like this, even by their own.

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Editorial, Georgetown, indefensible, President Ali, public

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