When spinning becomes comical

Nov 23, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Over and over I made the point that if someone chooses to be a public relations protector for the Government, that person is going to endure impossible situations. Spinning for the Guyana Government is a frightening nightmare. To some people, money is everything and they will sell their soul for thirty pieces of silver. But in the process they will appear comical and foolish in the eyes of their fellow citizens and the Diaspora. The reason is that the Guyana Government is hit with the Midas touch in reverse – everything it touches turn to sh…t instead of gold.
How are you going to spin in such a hopeless situation? Briefly, let’s examine some manifestations of comical spinning. One new PR guru advanced the thesis that Guyana is doing well because a Guyanese top the entire Caribbean region in CXC passes. He didn’t tell us that the person who brought dead last was also a Guyanese student. Shouldn’t you laugh at this? An older operative at the Presidential Secretariat wants the editor of this paper to take a closer look at what goes into my columns, wants the publisher of this very newspaper to keep a keen eye on what is written in the editorials and overall is not satisfied that the two independent dailies carry the positive developments of his government.
This spinner didn’t mention one word of one of the most gutter newspapers in the world of which he is a columnist and sits on its board; the Guyana Chronicle. In the worst dictatorships in the world, no newspaper has a letter section like the Chronicle that is so putrid, nasty and sickening. Shouldn’t this spinner’s observation make you laugh? A spinner who has been around for decades wrote the following; “Guyana Times can justifiably be described as the New York Times of Guyana.” Now this cannot irritate you. It has to make you laugh. The New York Times is one of the world best newspapers ever and has been literally feared by successive governments in the US for its valorous exposure of governmental scandals and official wrong doing. The Guyana Times editorial department must have been on strike when news hit the Caribbean that a Guyana Minister of Government was involved in facilitating a murderous drug baron. That item failed to attract coverage in the Guyana Times
A subtle spinner since the past two years for the PPP Government is Mr. Ravi Dev. Dev has officially wrapped up his political party, ROAR and has settled down to inventing theories and paradigms that when stripped bare are propaganda for the PPP Government. His latest episode is an attack on my political analyses including my revisionist thoughts on Cheddi Jagan’s autobiography, “The West on Trial.” Let us touch on one aspect of his spin. I have always advocated the use of the revisionist methodology when examining our country’s history, especially the complicated, complex period, 1960-1964.
My contention is that all we know about that period came from Jagan’s very popular volume plus released archival materials from the US Government. This incomplete picture has endured a long life because the Cuban and Russian archives for that period remain hermetically sealed and there are no alternative publications on that period. What “The West on Trial” has done is to provide us with details of people, places and events from the lenses not from of a participant/observer but one of the crucial actors who was in the thick of things, Cheddi Jagan. Gone missing so far are the accounts of Forbes Burnham, Peter D’Aguiar, Richard Ishmael, Ptomely Reid and others. Jagan painted a picture of derogation of those he didn’t like, those who didn’t share his ideology and those who were locked in battle with him for power.
Then there are the omissions that are lost to history and need to be searched for. For example, Dr. Jagan “exposed” all those who worked with the CIA, who got money from the Venezuelans, who took money from the British, the AFLCIO trade union in the US etc. But nowhere in “The West on Trial” is there an account of where the PPP got money to buy out a whole square on Regent Street where it opened a large commercial store named GIMPEX, huge real estate in Industrial Site and property and land at Land of Canaan. We know where that money came from – the Russians and Cubans. A single column on what Dev wrote yesterday will not suffice. I will return to his subtle yet hilarious spin on the sixties and politics today and what he has to say about my revisionism in a forthcoming article.

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When spinning becomes comical

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