How does Mr. Jagdeo feel about this?

Oct 04, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I don’t believe there was ever a leader of government that didn’t want his/her administration to be defended in the eyes of his/her nation by the leading citizens of the land. It must have been that leader’s desire to get the open support of the great scientists, scholars, civic-minded achievers, educationists, business investors and artists and performers of the country.
One would like to believe that was and is an instinctive drive. An interesting example of this is the campaign season in the US. Presidential contenders fight for big names in the entertainment industry. It certainly would have made a mockery of that candidate’s ambition if he/she had on his/her side a singer or actor who had a mediocre balance sheet.
In Guyana, we continue to drown in mediocrity while our Caribbean neighbours soar into the future. We are still looking for our future; have been doing that since the British removed the first elected government in 1953.
Take Premier Cheddi Jagan. It is an established fact that he put his tailor in an important managerial position when he nationalized the electricity company. That was in the fifties. In the nineties (almost forty years later), President Jagan put his chauffeur on the board of the Coop Bank. This is inexcusable.
What does a tailor know about running a huge utility company? This doesn’t mean that the tailor is an inferior person. It simply means that life was never meant to be like that. If it was, then the CEOs of the world’s largest corporations would invite the well-mannered coffee lady to join the boardroom. Can you see Rupert Murdoch doing that?
When the film Gandhi was being made, Indian actors were furious that the director took a white British actor to play the role of an Indian hero. Sir Richard Attenborough replied that his criterion wasn’t nationality but talent. Years later the same tempest greeted the maker of Evita. Argentine citizens were furious that an American singer Madonna was given the lead role and not an Argentinean actor.
The explanation, as in the case with Gandhi, was the same. It is natural for human beings to look for the best person if they want a job done. Unfortunately in Guyana that law of civilization is contemptuously tossed aside.
Go to the Chronicle newspaper and at the end of each month, you will find that Mr. Jagdeo’s performance as a President is defended in rosy, saccharine, melodious and emotional ways by about a hundred letters of which five names appear under them and all are phantoms.
Some of these signatures are well known jumbies, of which two stand out; Elizabeth Daly and T. King. Mr. Jagdeo reads the Chronicle. He must know that this supernatural state of affairs has been going on for years. Why Mr. Jagdeo comes into the picture is that he is the person in the Government that is directly in control over the state media.
It was Mr. Jagdeo in his capacity as Minister of Information who suspended the license of CNS TV Channel 6.
Two questions should be asked of Mr. Jagdeo. One is whether he finds that it is strategically elegant to have jumbies defending his “achievements.” And secondly, how does he feel mentally when he picks up the Chronicle and sees three letters everyday written by T. King and E. Daly, knowing that these are not real persons.
At some point Mr. Jagdeo has to say the following words to himself; “I am a proud President who is liked by his people, why do I need jumbies to take over the Chronicle to defend me?”
If he hasn’t asked himself that question, he should. He is the Minister of Information. He has jurisdiction over the Chronicle. Do you mean to say that Mr. Jagdeo is happy to have T. King and E. Daly blazing away at the recording of his great legacy but these historical facts are being written by jumbies? Why would any leader want that?
Take it another step up the ladder. Mr. Jagdeo surely would not want his biography to be written by someone whose name appears on the front cover as Mr. X. I am surprised that Mr. Jagdeo has not been advised by his warm comrades in the private sector that he needs to decide on this jumbie thing quickly because it is disastrous public relations.
No other government in the world has a newspaper and everyday there are eulogies for the great leader of the nation in the letter columns and they come from the pen of jumbies. Can’t some friendly businessman take this up with Mr. Jagdeo? It looks bad. In fact it is terrible. Is Mr. Jagdeo happy with his jumbie comrades?

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How does Mr. Jagdeo feel about this?

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