Ron off the radio; Ron on the radio

Jun 19, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Ron Robinson is a Guyanese institution. A likeable person, Ron has been around as long as the sun in Guyana.

I remember doing a column on the last GuyExpo and I ended it with some praise for this Guyanese legend. As I looked for my car, there was Ron in his Scots uniform assisting drivers to find the exit.

Can you get more patriotic than this?
Last week, I mentioned to my wife that once I hear a record by the Shadows, Ron Robinson shows up in my memory.

Those were the days of radio (I hope the next President of Guyana permits the opening up of the radio license).

As I dressed for school, the voice of Ron permeated the home. He hosted the early morning programme and had a fondness for the Shadows. I remember hearing “Apache” often. It seemed that was one of his favourite Shadows tunes.

Ron Robinson has endured. He has moved from radio to theatre to television. I would rate him as one of the best stage actors the Caribbean has produced. On a couple of occasions, Ron ran into trouble with the post-1992 government.

In one situation, it was for a remark on radio that the PPP Government wasn’t pleased with. I think that brought an end to Ron on radio.

It was for his television satire titled “Stretched Out Magazine” that catapulted Ron into political controversy. On two occasions, there were items in the caricature that met with the strong disapproval of the political elites.

In a drastic reaction, GTV pulled the plug on the show even though the dates were paid for and approved after it was monitored by the “communist censors” before being broadcast.

All television satire to be shown on state media has to be seen by the “Soviet censors” This is the way those that claim they believe in democracy behave now that they are in power.

When they were in the opposition they would have gone to Mount Roraima and shouted down Burnham’s Minister of Information for pre-screening radio programmes before presentation on the airwaves.

It is relevant, here, to mention that just before the 1992 general elections, opposition leader Cheddi Jagan, agreed to be interviewed by me for television. I was asked to submit the question in advance.

I strongly disagreed. Desperately needing the media time Jagan and his Freedom House underlings agreed to the discussion. I have always insisted that the insecurity in the PPP started with Jagan himself.

Back to Ron Robinson. Ron off the radio was a loss. But he successfully piloted “No Big Thing” on radio and “Stretched Out Magazine” on television. Ron is back on radio. Every day, early in the morning, you hear him. It brings back memories of this wonderful Guyanese when I was growing up on D’Urban Street, in Wortmanville.

I feel discomforted many times listening to Ron on the radio. I think I prefer Ron off the radio. Ron off the radio was more independent, more critical. Ron on the radio sounds as a person whose job is to instill a sense of nationalism in his listeners.

Nothing is wrong with that of course. Everything is good about the task of wanting to have your fellow Guyanese inculcate the instinct of nationalism.

But nationalism is a two-way street. Government must be nationalistic too. In this context, I feel uncomfortable at times with some of Ron’s exhortations. Ron Robinson means well for Guyana.

This I know. This I believe. But given his upbringing in the media, I thought he should not have lent his tremendous personality to the state media.

The state media is undemocratically managed. No person of national importance as Ron Robinson should function with state radio unless the governors in the corridors of power agree to open up the radio license.

Words cannot describe the nasty betrayal of the people of this country by the PPP in its preservation of the radio monopoly.

The entire PPP leadership, when it was in opposition, fought against the abuse of GBC and the Chronicle. PPP leaders were shut out from GBC.

Jagan himself raised the PNC’s manipulation of state media in Parliament.
Today in the more barefaced manner, PPP kings justify their abominable policy of one radio station only.

So now we have four daily newspapers. There are about a dozen television stations. But for some weird psychic reason, the PPP wants Guyana to have one radio station.

I once did a fortnightly Viewpoint on GBC and I penned my delivery within an independent framework. In addition, at that time, Guyana had not descended into elected dictatorship.

I respect and admire Ron Robinson; a really great Guyanese. But I would strongly advice that Ron use his time on GBC to call for an end to the radio monopoly. It is an ugly, vulgar violation of democracy.

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