The first victim of Carifesta

Aug 27, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Human beings never learn. When they do realize the truths of life, in many situations it is too late. Every single journalist in this country knows what is in store for him/her once they do not follow a pro-government or pro-PPP line in the state media.

For any journalist to say that she/she was surprised because they didn’t know the little Third World dictators would have knocked them down for the most harmless of mistakes, then they know absolutely nothing about Guyana, the role of the PPP in the destruction of this country and the nasty role the PPP has played in the exercise of power since 1957. Is it that they didn’t know or they are just plain stupid?

The PPP has been in power for sixteen years. Within that time, state media journalists have been treated with more administrative brutality than what obtained in the Burnham era.

My consistent observation on this page is that with each passing day, we are seeing forms of state behaviour that are worse than during the Burnham era.

On Sunday, morning Mr. Neil Marks, the news editor of the Guyana Times (which has a strip on its front page that refers to itself as “the beacon of truth”) was told orally that he was dismissed. Then the next day, a letter followed.

I asked Mr. Marks on Tuesday afternoon what was the reason given in the letter. He told me it stated that he failed to carry out instructions.

We went on to talk but Mr. Marks refused to permit me to publish our interview (which was short because there weren’t too many questions to ask because every Guyanese knows how insecure the PPP rulers are).

I can’t print Mr. Marks’s words but I can certainly state what I said to Mr. Marks. I ended our conversation by remarking to him; “Didn’t you know what these people were like?”

It would seem that Mr. Marks got into trouble over the headline of the Saturday edition of the Guyana Times. It intoned that the opening of Carifesta was disappointing. In the corridors of power, anger was overflowing.

A powerful person called Guyana Times and set off a pyrotechnical display of scatology that made the Brazilian air show for Carifesta look like child’s play.

The next day, Mr. Marks was fired. My understanding is that Guyana Times editor, Avery Gomes, may get his letter tomorrow.

When I heard that Mr. Avery Gomes had become the editor of the Guyana Times, I thought of the strange things people do.

For three consecutive years, Mr. Gomes and I were the earliest visitors to the National Park. We parked near to each other. He would stay in his car while I perambulated the square miles of the park.

Many times after reading the Kaieteur News, I would go up to his car and give him my copy. For three consecutive years, if Mr. Gomes missed four mornings in the park then he missed a lot.

After he became editor of the Guyana Times, I became the solitary, matutinal figure in the park. Mr. Gomes was no more to been seen in his car.

Then suddenly last month, he reappeared. I felt the urge to go up to him and say: “Why did you exchange the morning leisure for a politically uncertain job like the editor of the Guyana Times?

But some thoughts disappear as quickly as they come to you. Surely, Neil Marks and Avery Gomes had to know the little dictators they were dealing with.

The tentacles of elected dictatorship are all over this country. They have been there for years now for all to see. Hundreds of thousands of Guyanese have seen these pangs as they devour this nation. Are Marks and Gomes blind?

Was it a mistake on the part of Mr. Marks and Mr. Gomes to carry a headline that screamed that the opening of Carifesta was disappointing? It depends on what perspective you use.

I was not at the launching of the Guyana Times when the speeches were made. I wrote twice on this page that I felt I would have been assaulting my dignity to go and listen to President Jagdeo extolling the virtues of democracy in Guyana.

I still believe Yesu Persaud made a mistake in going. By the time I arrived, the banal repetitions that reminded you of Castro’s boring outpourings were done. But the sentiment that filled the room was that the Guyana Times would be like any other professional newspaper.

Now it is possible that both Gomes and Marks felt that given that context of the launching, then they could have taken professional latitude and written about reality in Guyana? They were dead wrong.

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The first victim of Carifesta

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