Getting off lightly

Oct 24, 2008 Freddie Kissoon

Once you have a newspaper and/or a television set, you will follow the American presidential election campaign. There is no question that you would like to and you may take an interest. You are following it. This presidential race is too important to the world and history for the peoples of the world not to keep abreast of the contest.
A unique human being is set to become the President of the United States. That alone evokes fantastic interest in the citizens of the world.
Well, if you are keeping an eye on the campaign, then you would know that the U.S. has a vibrant media that will expose you if you falter. The American media are slaughtering John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin. But they are not doing so out of malice. They are simply laughing at the daily mistakes and quotidian blunders of these two politicians.
A few days ago, Mrs. Jagan celebrated her 88th birthday, and that event has been featured in all the daily newspapers in Guyana. How intriguing that Mrs. Jagan’s weekly columns in the Mirror criticize the U.S. on its lack of democracy yet the U.S. may create extraordinary history in the election of an Afro-American and a politician bent on helping the poor and the needy.
One would like to think that in her eyes, Mrs. Jagan must see something positive about the U.S. in this context.
Surely, it cannot miss Mrs. Jagan’s attention that the opponent of Barack Obama (Mrs. Jagan supports Obama) is getting mauled by the media because he is faltering and his record is not standing up to scrutiny. This is the very Mrs. Jagan who in four columns the past two months has accused the Guyanese private media of being irresponsible, untruthful, engaged in rumour-mongering and does not give the Guyana Government credit for doing good things.
This same Mrs. Jagan has never used her columns to offer insights into the wrong-doings of the Government of Guyana. Mrs. Jagan is credited with being one of the early fighters for women’s rights but quite a large number of women have had their rights trampled upon by men in the corridors of power yet we do not read about that in Mrs. Jagan’s columns.
So is the American media being unfair to John Mc Cain and Sarah Palin? Is the Guyanese media unfair to Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP? We can begin to answer that question by saying that when you read and look at what the American media are doing to McCain and Palin, then Mr. Jagdeo and his Cabinet and public sector appointees get off very lightly in this country.
In fact, they get away with murder. Mr. Mc Cain, instead of saying “I couldn’t disagree more with the nasty things Barack Obama’s supporters said about western Pennsylvania,” confused “disagree” and “agree” and said “agree” instead. He was hauled over the coal for that.
Mrs. Palin told a rally that the Vice-President is in charge of the US Senate. That is absolutely untrue. She was severely punished by the media for that mistake.
Let’s ask Mrs. Jagan a question. Mrs. Palin is in charge of Alaska. Do you think Mrs. Palin would have lasted one hour in the American election campaign, not one day but one hour if while as Governor an official state enquiry had found that one of her top aides had signed over fifty bogus state documents and yet was retained in his high profile job?
When Mrs. Jagan attacks American democracy, these are the things she must be confronted with. In the U.S., a little mistake can bring down a powerful politician because the media will do their job. In Guyana, all types of mistakes – offensive, egregious, racial, comical, unbecoming, insulting – are made by members of the ruling elite and the press does not press on.
The press let them off lightly. I repeat – they get away with murder.
Take two examples. President Jagdeo told a press conference that he has a very good relationship with Jamaican PM Bruce Golding. But what relationship is that when Mr. Golding had Guyana in mind when he called this country a constant beggar. Shouldn’t the press ask Mr. Jagdeo if he knows who his friends are?
Secondly, the President wanted the EPA to have two insertions; one is a periodic review of the arrangement, the other is that Caricom’s CSME takes precedence over the EPA if there is a clash. The media allowed the President to get off lightly because the EPA encapsulates these very demands.
I read the EPA document last week. Over to Mrs. Jagan!

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