PLENTY OF SMOKE BUT LITTLE HAZE

Jul 27, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A few nights ago I was having a discussion with some friends and the conversation came around to the proposed pipeline that it is said that Venezuela wishes to build through Guyana.

Some of the members of the group were concerned that this project could be used to compromise Guyana’s territorial integrity.
I was aghast at such a notion. It made no sense at all.

They were only seeing what they wanted to see. They were not looking at the larger picture of the need for our western neighbour to deepen the process of petroleum integration within the Region.

Those who were suspicious of the proposal were only seeing the smaller part of the picture and not examining a much larger strategy which has nothing to do with our territorial dispute with that country.

There are sections of the media in Guyana which have paranoia about Venezuela, especially when it comes to relations with Guyana.

There is always some suspicion about anything that country does in relation to ours. It is a fear that was cultivated from way back by those who desperately needed a diversion.

This perceived threat posed by our western neighbour has been used by forces outside of the media as a smokescreen to divert attention from serious problems internally.

I have always insisted that the Venezuelans pose no threat to Guyana; that all the suspicions about that country only serves to hamper relations between the two nations and that what Guyanese need to do is to understand why this suspicion has existed but more importantly, whose interests it served. This perceived threat was often just a smokescreen to divert from internal problems at home.

The same pattern persists today. We have serious problems in Guyana and ever so often a smokescreen is thrown up to change the focus of the Guyanese people. It is an old political trick.

The media in Guyana are ethically bound to defend freedom of the press whenever it rears its ugly head.

However, the media must be careful that it makes a careful study of incidents to determine whether they constitute a direct assault on the rights of the media and if they do, whether they are, however, not also just a smokescreen to divert attention from larger issues in the society.

It has long been a political strategy that when there is need to shift attention from one issue, another issue is concocted so as to draw attention to that issue.

This is something that the local media has to consider because while it may be expending its energies in one direction, this is exactly what some people may be wishing it to do so as to not concentrate its attention on other more critical issues.

The media may believe that it is doing something honourable in confronting some source of aggravation. However, it may be playing right into the hands of those who wish to manipulate the media so as to obscure and obfuscate some greater issue.

I therefore feel that the media in Guyana has to be careful that while defending the right of any of its members to freely work, it must not allow itself to be lured away from the more important issues, most of which are about the question of governance in Guyana.

This is the first point that I wish to make today and one of the reasons why I am opposed to the media in Guyana walking out of press conferences which deal with important issues which the Guyanese people need information on.

The media in staging a protest cannot obviate its obligation to our society, an obligation which involves it bringing information to the people.

I have therefore long suggested that if the media was offended and violated it needs to be more strategic, but it cannot in doing so ignore important issues which may be the very issues from which diversion is being sought.

I think for example that we have a serious situation in Guyana in which the Guyanese public was told one thing but which was contradicted by agreements signed.

I do not think that in any part of the world, persons found being less than forthright with the Guyanese public ought to retain positions of trust in conducting public affairs.

Yet in all of this there has been deafening silence even though it is now clear that the Guyanese public was misled.

In order to get to the bottom of these things, media operatives and commentators must ask themselves one single important question for every issue. That question is what is behind this.

By simply asking that one question, it will allow journalists and commentators to get to the gravamen of the issues under consideration and help determine whether some act is a smokescreen.

It does not mean that any issue of injustice should not be addressed. On the contrary, any such violations require equal attention.

What is however important is that the media should see beyond the trees and understand what the forests are about. They must see the wider picture about what is going on in Guyana and try not to lose focus.