Freddie Kissoon column...The nature of power: The Chronicle then and now

Freddie Kissoon column…The nature of power: The Chronicle then and now

Sep 04, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Dr. Odeen Ishmael, the Guyana Ambassador to Venezuela, must be the only diplomat in the world that holds a state job yet writes in a party newspaper. Normally, diplomats tend to stay away from partisan politics. He has a weekly column in the Mirror since the PPP won power in 1992.
Recently, he looked at how newspaper owners tended to be biased in the sixties. He cites the case of the Chronicle. It was owned by Mr. Peter D’Aguair and, according to him, the letter section of the newspaper refused to print an item in praise of Premier Cheddi Jagan.
He said the correspondence was then sent to the Thunder, a publication of the PPP. It was signed by a lady who had a Christian last name and gave her address in Kitty. Dr. Ishmael felt D’Aguair would not have approved the publication of such a letter.
Mr. D’Aguair is not alive so he cannot defend himself.
When young minds read this kind of stuff by Dr. Ishmael, they can form a one-sided picture in their mind of the country’s past. Sadly in this country, revisionist historians are not questioning traditional explanations of Guyana’s contemporary history.
On reading Dr. Ishmael’s comments on the letter, one gets two impressions. First, he is saying that D’Aguair’s ownership of the paper determined what went into it. Secondly, there was the subtle hint that Mr. D’Aguair didn’t want the letter to be printed.
The fascinating thing about studying the PPP in power in the sixties is that the researcher, living in the 21st century and investigating an epoch that existed almost fifty years ago, gets the uncanny, eerie feeling that the sixties live on and can be seen in this moment in time.
When you examine the name of the letter-writer and the contents of the letter back then, and then examine what the Chronicle is in the year 2008, then you see that the approaches to politics in the sixties are still with us.
Before we continue on that theme, let us examine the second suggestion that D’Aguair himself may have rejected the letter. It is doubtful that this actually happened. D’Aguair’s company may have owned the newspaper but at that time Mr. D’Aguair was heading one of the biggest enterprises in the Caribbean and would hardly have had the time to supervise the letter section of the Chronicle. Added to this is the fact that as an opposition politician, he obviously would have chosen an editor that would have been on the identical wavelength as he was. Why then would he be at the Chronicle peeping into the letter columns?
Let us return to the past as it lives in the future. Dr. Ishmael is right – D’Aguair owned the Chronicle so he ran it according to what he wanted. But look who controls the Chronicle today. Is the approach to content different than when D’Aguair was at the helm?
Countless pages have flowed from the pen of PPP functionaries about the nature of newspapers in the sixties – the owners used them to instill their ideology, their agenda. Today, the very PPP that excoriated media owners of the sixties has a similar style when it comes to domination and propaganda. What the Argosy and Chronicle were like in the sixties is what the Chronicle, NCN television and NCN radio are today. Guess who is in charge of all three?
Interestingly, Dr. Ishmael has brought out for us an old strategy from the sixties that the PPP has carried over to the 21st century. In those days over 98 percent of the supporters of the PPP were East Indians, yet a letter was sent to the Chronicle castigating the opposition for harassing Dr. Jagan but it was signed by someone that had an English name. And was this a real person? Is it possible that back in those days the editors were aware of this strategy of the PPP thus the refusal. Let us come to the 21st century.
Look at the Chronicle letter columns in these times. Five pieces are penned each day by writers using false names. In almost all instances, the signatures are not Indian names but Christian ones. This is to create the impression that quite a large number of non-Indians support the PPP because look how many of them write missives in the Chronicle eulogizing the Guyana Government. Out of those five one must be on Frederick Kissoon.
I feel the way Cheddi Jagan felt in the sixties. In “The West on Trial” Jagan bitterly complained about the Chronicle’s attacks on him. It is my turn to cry about the Chronicle. But look who owns it today. This is the nature of power.

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Freddie Kissoon column…The nature of power: The Chronicle then and now

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