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President Jagdeo’s request to the media

Mar 24, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Every Prime Minister or President has his/her agenda in terms of the prioritization process. The opposition seldom concurs because it to has its own agenda. Civilised, sensible politics is for the person with the power to attempt to implement at least one or more of the items on the opposition’s list.
Anyone who feels that President Obama will just shut out the Republican agenda is naïve.
In Guyana, President Jagdeo’s ten-year-old rule has witnessed literally horrendous instabilities. Whether President Jagdeo was the cause or he was in the right cannot erase the fact that there have not been five leaders in the world whose tenure has met with so many terrifying national controversies.
They don’t seem to go away. I say with every ounce of honesty in my heart that no Prime Minister or President in these parts of the world would have survived the wrath of a nation given what President Jagdeo’s Government has been accused of.  Basdeo Panday’s Government imploded over a simple accusation.
Owen Arthur was one of Barbados’s finest Prime Ministers yet was vote out of office. But Mr. Jagdeo’s reign continues. What next for Guyana under him?
Mr. Jagdeo’s recurring weakness is that he refuses to understand agenda politics. Opposition parties and civil society have their order of priorities and they want at least one of them to be given attention and implemented. Not all but maybe just one. Mr. Jagdeo gives no quarters. He is relentless in the pursuit of his own list. This is his fundamental problem. That fundamental dilemma becomes a monstrous catastrophe in Guyana because we have always been a poor, unstable, divided violence-prone society. Guyana is not stable, tranquil Malta, Barbados, Belgium, etc. It is one of the world’s modern political tragedies.
The simple recognition of this reality by Mr. Jagdeo could open up endless possibilities for him as President. But Mr. Jagdeo does not seem to be that type of leader. He wants to bend and shape stakeholders to confirm to and embrace his agenda. In September 2008 he explained that he will consult the nation on the invalidities in the EPA.
He insisted they must be removed from the concord because they are not in the interest of Guyana’s future. Mr. Jagdeo was not interested in a tête-à-tête that would involve the agenda of other stakeholders. Unfortunately Winston Murray and Clive Thomas got burnt by in Mr. Jagdeo’s so-called EPA consultation
The latest episode of President Jagdeo’s train of desires is his wish to have a retreat with the media community to explain his interest in climate change. He suggested two days at Lake Mainstay. What is wrong with that? One thing is not right about it. The President is going to tell the media functionaries about how serious is the problem and how deleterious will be the effect on Guyana’s future.
The media will then be asked to join in a partnership with President Jagdeo to bring climate change awareness to the world, not only Guyanese. So what is the one thing that will be wrong over those two days at Lake Mainstay? The media will be playing Mr. Jagdeo’s game. The media will be serving Mr. Jagdeo’s agenda. What happens then to the media’s agenda?
When I heard about this idea of the President, I went to the publisher of Kaieteur News. I have no relationship with the other private media houses. I spoke to Mr. Lall, and requested that Kaieteur News stay about from this game. My first words to Mr. Lall were about the radio station and the Freedom of Information Act (FIA). These are things that directly impact on the work of the media. More radio stations mean greater freedom of the press.
The FIA allows journalists to be more precise in what they do. Mr. Jagdeo must explain to all media workers in the entire world, not only Guyanese, but every decent citizen of Planet Earth why he and his government does not want Guyana to have more than one radio station.
What frightening thing is going to happen to the territory and society of Guyana should there be private radio stations?
Aren’t there private television, private schools, private hospitals? Can Mr. Jagdeo tell the world what is so terrifying about the FIA? So why don’t we not take up the Lake Mainstay offer but insist that this is a new beginning? We go to the Essequibo, listen to the President, agree with him, then, we go on this climate change bandwagon. In exchange we get a pledge from Mr. Jagdeo that there will be inclusive governance. How about that for a mutually arranged agenda?

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