H@rd Truths by GHK Lall – President Ali’s First Duty is to Truth, Openness and Straightness

Aug 13, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – I feel sorry for President Ali.  The President opens himself to ridicule and low estimations, with some of the claims from either he himself or his people. There really ought to be thinking before speaking publicly.  At least, give the Guyanese public some benefit about understanding a little of what is going on before their eyes.  When Guyanese are insulted with the ludicrous, the President inflicts the ridiculous on himself, sabotaging his own standing.

GHK Lall

Recently, Excellency Ali flourished: ‘African Guyanese will never be marginalized.’  Certainly, has the beauty of a ring to it.  Try selling that harsh, bitter concoction to public servants, IDPADA-G, and communities with the face and history of Georgetown.  If that was intended to be a presidential truth, then only His Excellency is persuaded.  There is little that is straight or promising about that assertion, other than it was uttered.  Shallower than a poorly made hollow block, and just as crumbly.

Then, take the media.  Excellency Ali insists that his time is the people’s time, that he has made himself readily available to address what comes before him.  Candor is required.  President Ali has shared his media time selectively.  President Ali has chosen when, with whom, about what, and how he will discuss vital matters of this State.  Rougher still, but similarly respectfully, when President Ali says otherwise, then he condemns himself to the ranks of the crude with principle, careless with truth, and clever contradictions of which a head-of-state should not be. Occasionally, the President speaks with curled lips about how transparent both he and his government have been, when the reality is of an official environment knotted with secrecies.

Presidents shouldn’t do this to themselves. Not when the independent press is involved.  If anyone else were to say what President Ali attests about how well he has dealt with the media, I would call him a bumbling manipulator, a buffoon lacking self-respect.  The presidency does have the dignity of safe harbours, protective moats. Regarding the press’s role, the president cannot reach all Guyanese, get his version of truths across by himself.  To communicate with the people, the President has the pillar of the Fourth Estate, which has its sacred roles, the first of which is real truth, not what pleases pols.  Any President who is committed to the straight path would welcome with both hands the presence of the independent press, regardless how caustic it is.  A caustic press keeps everyone on their toes, compels them to do justice by Guyanese. When the President believes otherwise, the press has a duty to be skeptical, push behind political primroses for concealed ‘pimpla.’ Corrupt (compromised) Governments are especially rich with primroses, generous in lavishing them on their own, while leaving the ‘pimplas’ for their believed adversaries.

President Ali also knows what some other roles of a free, uninhibited press are.  Not to tell him what he wants to hear; nor ask empty questions.  A second role is to sift through his messages and determine how they fuse with truth, how circumstances clash with presidential sayings.  A third is to present publicly what nobody else is sharing, due to allegiance, circumspection, or fear.  None of those are among the roles of a principled, independent media.  Mostly, the media’s role is not to be cozy, or cravenly submissive, to Presidents, be their friend.

Guyanese should recall the role of the US media, the Washington Post particularly, and two dogged, fearless reporters, Woodward and Bernstein.  Watergate resulted.  An American President ate his words, “I’m not a crook.” As I reflect on Woodward and Bernstein’s efforts, I remember where even the venerable New York Times feared to thread. This is the tireless responsibility of Fourth Estate practitioners, even when their professional peers crumble. The media has its role, so also Guyana’s President Ali.

President Ali’s first duty is to truth, not play games with it.  Not slice it to suit his objectives.  Not splice it for political motives.  I am talking about the lives of the poor and struggling in Guyana, their expectations: Amerindian Guyanese, African Guyanese, Indian Guyanese.  So, should President Ali and/or his close associates carve up truths, facts, and circumstances to present disingenuousness, then both president and his parties to inaccuracies fail their first test: being honourable.  Doing what is completely honest.  Honesty is total, or it is nothing.

President Ali hurts himself when he insists that he is available to the press; that he meets the press.  In America, even to think of saying that behind closed doors would brand the President as an uber deceiver.  If President Ali were to even attempt to deliver elsewhere what he does here, he risks mockery and effigy of himself. But Guyana is a different territory, operates at different wavelengths, cherishes different standards.  Indeed, the President has met the press.  But only those media sections that are willing to overlook his flimsy pretenses.  Only occasionally when he thinks his rickety messages will be given a pass.  Only when the media that holds the President’s feet to the fire is excluded, or limited in some way.  Save yourself, President Ali.  Speak straight, do right, be upright. Stop the jive.  I believe that the President can do better.  It begins with real truths.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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