Origins of the third term conspiracy

Nov 13, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

You don’t have to study business science to understand, at an elementary level, that investors study the market before they rush into a purchase. To do otherwise is to court huge disasters. You don’t buy a company or begin manufacturing of a product without analyzing if there is a market for the item.
When the Ramroop Group of Companies decided to start a daily newspaper, the Guyana Times, I dare say that there wasn’t an objective Guyanese at the time that believed it would give competition to the two established independent dailies.
Before Guyana Times, there were already three newspapers selling at $60 for the daily, and $120 for the Sunday edition. I say without any doubt in my mind that this economy cannot sustain the profitability of three daily newspapers.
Citizens cannot buy three daily newspapers. Then there is the macabre dimension – Guyana does not have a viable intellectual climate and the reading public is small. Remember the monthly Guyana Review published by David Granger had to fold. We know that the Chronicle is subsidized by the Government. In the midst of this narrow market came the Guyana Times. Why?
It had nothing to do with the Ramroop Group sensing a profitable venture. The birth of the Guyana Times was the beginning of the third term conspiracy. Knowing that it would not be able to use the Chronicle to push the third term agenda because the Chronicle is not read and because other PPP contenders would demand space too, the third term planners innovated with another private, daily newspaper.
The Guyana Times does not sell, does not make a profit and is not a popular paper even on the internet. There are many reasons for this and one has to be an ostrich in the sand not to see that there is an avid, eager desire for the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News among the Guyanese people.
The Guyana Times cannot compete because citizens, including the PPP supporters, do not want to read pro-government news. Take the two spin doctors, Randy Persaud and Prem Misir. They are not satisfied with having the Chronicle to themselves; they are big users of the letter pages of the two independent dailies.
Prem Misir is content to reproduce his Chronicle columns as letters in the two independent dailies, something a respected and well–patronized columnist would never do.
Randy Persaud appealed to the Stabroek News to use its letter pages to speak directly to the Diaspora. Persaud and Misir eschew the avenue of the Guyana Times.
Secondly, Guyana Times is constrained by its intimacy with the presidency to avoid reporting on horrific crimes, sordid dramas inside the Government and bad behaviour by government officials which have national consequences.
Two original journalists of the Times told me that they believed that their paper was an independent media outfit. They are Neil Marks and former editor, Avery Gomes. Why are people going to leave the KN and SN with its reports on scandal after scandal in the corridors of power and buy a Times, with articles on issues and news far removed from Guyana?
The real purpose of the Guyana Times is to push for a third term for Mr. Jagdeo and it has started.
Next came the purchase of VCT’s entire assets. Tony Vieira was elated when the Ramroop Group bought out his outfit. The profits for Vieira had dried up. Vieira had a phenomenal gift when Ramroop came knocking. The billion-dollar question – how will Ramroop make VCT into a profitable company? VCT will go the same way as Guyana Times because it is constrained by the same congenital factors.
The reason for the purchase is to add to the media landscape that intends to propagate the third term idea.
Finally, VCT will get a licence for radio that will reach to all Guyana thus making the third term machine a huge operation
The battle for a third term is truly on. The Jagdeo aficionados did not need Guyana Times, VCT and a VCT radio to help Mr. Jagdeo get a third term. No one buys the Guyana Times in preference to other newspapers. No one patronizes the Evening News in preference to other TV newcasts. Jagdeo will get a third term nomination from the PPP’s central committee/executive committee because he has the required votes in those bodies. I am sure Mr. Jagdeo is going to demand a vote by show of hands. His beneficiaries will not dare to keep their hands to their sides.
However, there are some hopefuls that want to defeat Mr. Jagdeo for the PPP’s prized possession. Can they?

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Origins of the third term conspiracy

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