There may be double standards

Sep 29, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
To begin with, I actually couldn’t understand why the Office of the President recently accused some media houses of being in breach of this country’s anti-racism laws, when there is no truth to these claims.
It is therefore obvious to us that this Government is just making up false allegations against those media houses in an effort to shut them up from exposing the corruption in this country.
For instance, there was the government withdrawal of advertisements from Stabroek News, President Bharrat Jagdeo seeking a $50,000 from Kaieteur News and the columnist, Freddie Kissoon, for a column which he, Jagdeo said, embarrassed his government.
Those are just some of the little things that we should take note of today and sense that this Government is only trying to penalizing those media houses especially Stabroek News and Kaieteur News for their editorial stance on issues abhorrent to the Government for the past years even though we have the fundamental rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by the Constitution of Guyana in Article 146 (1) of the Constitution: which clearly stated “Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions without interference, freedom to receive ideas and information without interference, freedom to communicate ideas and information without interference and freedom from interference with his correspondence.”
This PPP Government is just afraid of freedom of expression and couldn’t deal with the fact that every citizen has the right to excise his or her views on any matter in our society.
Let me state briefly some of the things this PPP Government today should really be ashamed of in relation to this Racial Hostility (Amendment) Act 2002 of our Constitution.
There has been the Government withdrawal of state subsidy from Critchlow Labour College. The majority of children attend the college seems to be Afro- Guyanese.
There has been the removal of Mr. Lloyd Forde from the Customs Department for no credible reasons even though he had the all the necessary requirements for the position he had held and did not reach the age of retirement.
Then came the removal of the former Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen from the bench for no credible reasons even though the Attorney General, Doodnauth Singh admitted in a court document dated December 3, 2006 that there were no complaints of alleged misconduct had been filed by the Judicial Service Commission against the former Chief Magistrate Ms. Holder-Allen. Then there was Government’s refusal to pay former first lady Mrs. Joyce Hoyte her husband’s accumulated pension even though both former First Lady Doreen Chung as well as Mrs. Janet Jagan, received their late husbands’ Presidential pensions when they were living. Admittedly, this was done.
The reasons for refusing to appoint Acting Chief Education Officer, Mrs Genevieve Whyte-Nedd to the position of Chief Education Officer in the department of Education in Guyana for no credible reasons even though she is highly qualified for the position has not been stated.
The reasons for Government refusing to probe the Phantom Squad” that was responsible for “at least 200 extra-judicial killings from 2002 to 2006 in our country of predominantly young Afro Guyanese including the late political activist and journalist, Ronald Waddell.
All the above are in breach of the Racial Hostility (Amendment) Act 2002 of our Constitution. which states that a person shall be guilty of an offence if he willfully excites or attempts to excite hostility or ill will against any section of the public, or against any person on the grounds of their or his race by means of, among other things.
Rayvonne P. Bourne

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