Time will tell, the brave will survive

Sep 03, 2009 Editorial

There is a most amazing development in the local media at this time. There is the adage that a cameraman is the one behind the camera and never before it; that reporters ferret out the news but never become a part of the news or even the news; that newspapers publish the news but never are the news. The people who least grant interviews are the people who report the news.
In Guyana this is easier said than done.
Surely, there are times when the pursuit of these ideals by reporters and newspapers would come to the attention of others who would then talk about the exploits of either the reporter, or the cameraman or the newspaper. In the days after Watergate, two men, Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein, decided to investigate. They went after Nixon and his cronies but they never made the news until years later when they had published books and had become famous and were no longer reporters.
They investigated the administration and got people inside to talk to them. In the end the President of the United States resigned rather than face impeachment. The society was grateful to two reporters.
Guyana must be an aberration because a newspaper is now being asked to justify its pursuit of decency. When even the President of the country could suggest that the business community limit finances to the newspaper something must be wrong. And unlike the people who spoke to Woodward and Bernstein, some under the condition of anonymity, in Guyana a few of those who initially provided information, suddenly recanted after contact with the administration.
Watergate was an inside job; there was no visible evidence to support the charges of political espionage except for the wires a janitor found. In Guyana the evidence abounds in the over-priced works, the substandard constructions, the complaints by the beneficiaries, and above all the published replies by those in authorities.
Unlike Watergate, the reporters in Guyana do not have a Freedom of Information Act and in any case, if there is one, there would be the dilatory nature of the courts to accede to such requests.
Like Watergate, there is a frenzied attempt at a cover-up. Like Watergate that saw the sacking of the man who discovered the attempt at espionage, the government is targeting the origin of the reports.
Unlike the United States where the people are not afraid to voice their opinion about Government irregularity, the Guyanese society is cowed; there is fear of physical harm against those who speak out. Even hardened politicians are afraid to offer comments and to mount their independent investigations.
It has been repeatedly stated that the news media are the watchdogs of the society and the society should be appreciative. The current budget has revealed that more than eighty per cent of Government revenue comes from taxes. Guyanese are the most taxed people in the world and they deserve some ease. The exposures by this newspaper are intended to achieve this goal.
Sadly, the country has a most ineffective political opposition. It can be understood why some sections of the society believe that the various members of the political opposition have been compromised.
We must also examine the Financial Institution Act which traces the flow of money. If this one-man organization had the tools, surely it would have detected untold wealth flowing into local and international banks.
One retired banker once declared that if he were to report any illegal movement of money through his bank at mid-morning, by noon on his way home he would be dead. That is the fear that grips the society. And it all began during the period when Forbes Burnham ruled this land.
Seventeen years after the new administration came to office nothing has changed except the face of crime, which has become so much more violent and more brazen.
The Integrity Commission would have also been able to detect the newfound wealth of people who are accountable to this institution. Perhaps the Integrity Commission did make such discoveries but by virtue of not being as independent as it should, and with its members being affiliated to one political party or the other, such discoveries would be ignored.
In keeping with the tenet to avoid making the news, this newspaper should ignore the criticisms leveled against it and simply report the news.
Time will vindicate it.

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