Is this journalistic deception and ‘deferred integrity’

May 08, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Brother Tacuma Ogunseye recently made two ‘out of character’ and untrue statements on Christopher Ram’s weekly Sunday TV show just over a week ago. While being purposefully questioned and prompted by Christopher Ram, Brother Tacuma ogunseye stated Eric Phillips “doctored” ACDA’s press release on his BV speech. Brother Tacuma also further stated the doctoring was because Eric Phillips was threatened by Odinga Lumumba to whom he gave a copy of the tape of the BV speech.
Firstly, Brother Tacuma knows fully well ACDA stands by the statement, “it never discussed who would win an election and what would happen afterward”.
Secondly, Brother Tacuma should know there were several individuals who ideas were used in the words of the press release sent to the media and the above bracketed words were not the contribution of Eric Phillips, even though I was the one delegated to finalize the draft document I had presented to him. That draft document was an internal ACDA document which Dennis Chabrol publicly placed on Face Book to create controversy between Brother Tacuma and myself.
Thirdly, Brother Tacuma should know better than anyone else that Odinga Lumumba cannot threaten Eric Phillips. I am a third degree black belt and a weapons expert and was one of less than a handful of individuals with the courage to be in Buxton where I was weekly teaching young people during the ‘Fineman’ episode. During those two years plus, many of the “champions of people rights” who spout bravery and leadership today, were afraid to go into Buxton”.
Brother Tacuma is also aware that my trips to Buxton resulted in several threats and two attempts on my life but did not deter me. And finally, Brother Tacuma also knows that over the last seven years, no one has spent more time fighting this racially driven government through 127 letters and articles about their gross injustices to Africans in Guyana. Included in this “body of work” were the seven letters of the African Renaissance and a large number of letters and speeches on African marginalisation, shared governance and African land rights.
Brother Tacuma also knows that during this period, no one has spent more time with African youth addressing their educational needs, leadership skills, community development plans, African culture and self-improvement needs. This is indisputable.
Fourthly, Brother Tacuma Ogunseye knows neither Lumumba nor anyone in the PPP can threaten ACDA.
Mr. Editor, it is very instructive that Dennis Chabrol, the operator of Demerarawaves and a close friend of Brother Tacuma Ogunseye was the individual who started the national ruckus about Tacuma’s BV speech with his article “ACDA reads riot act for power sharing if opposition loses”. It is public record that Mr. Chabrol’s article in Demerarawaves was published by the PPP’s Chronicle, verbatim. Subsequent to the Chronicle article, 38 letters condemning ACDA and Tacuma appeared in this propogandistic tabloid.
The Editor and people of Guyana should know Mr. Chabrol is a close friend and associate of Brother Tacuma Ogunseye and Mr. Chabrol very well knew what he printed in his first outrageous headline…. was not an ACDA position. In fact, Mr. Chabrol claims he did not tape Brother Tacuma’s BV speech when I called him on reading his sensational headline. This must be a first for Mr. Chabrol who wears his journalistic professionalism by having his “prideful” tape on him at all times. His tape is normally his chosen weapon and sword of journalistic sensationalism.
Mr. Editor, why would Dennis Chabrol go all the way to BV to listen to his friend Brother Tacuma and not take his tape? Is this journalistic deception and “deferred integrity”.
I hope by now, Brother Tacuma Ogunseye should realise Dennis Chabrol is not a friend of ACDA. Witness how each year Mr. Chabrol publicly questions ACDA’s receipt of a lousy US$10,000 for Emancipation Day, a day that celebrates the millions of African lives lost to build Guyana and the Western world. What pittance. Witness however, Mr. Editor, that Dennis Chabrol has never questioned the US$150,000 given to the racing crowd for a tarmac at Timeri; never questioned the US$50,000 given to Amerindians each year for Amerindian Heritage Month; never questioned the paltry sum set aside for UN International Year of People of African Descent and never questioned the hundreds of thousands handed out to Indian communities and events on an annual basis.
This is why Mr. Chabrol’s Demerarawaves title read “ACDA reads riot act” and not “Tacuma reads riot act”. It was a purposeful attack on ACDA.
Mr. Editor, I am convinced as are many others that the lies told to Brother Tacuma Ogunseye about Phillips giving a tape to Lumumba and being influenced by it, could only come from a Trojan Horse source. This is further reinforced by an untrue allegation about a sexual act that the PPP conjured up through Kojo Parris their African Guyanese Consulate in South Africa as a slander strategy against me. This is their so called public deterrent for Eric Phillips because they are concerned about his fearless disdain for them. They are also concerned because I was a White House Fellow with open access at many levels in the US Government.
This slander strategy first surfaced in an Allan Fenty article in February. Sadly, the truth will always win against the evil and corrupt. This conjured up allegation is a spent bullet with no factual biases or future or present political currency.
Strangely Mr. Editor, this episode with Tacuma shows the debt of moral corruption and fundamental conflicts of interests in Guyana that makes Guyana a modern day social, cultural, political, economic and moral tragedy.
The ERC which is unconstitutionally constituted and illegal (chaired by someone who is a Bishop? Head of the Post Office and there of the Government, member of many government appointed boards) wants to act as judge and jury when it has no moral or popular basis. This is “gong show” like behaviour.
Finally, Mr. Editor, there seems to be a trend in Guyana, perhaps driven by the indecency of character and unholy alliance of “lies, innuendo, cowardice and subtle racism of the Chronicle…for individuals in the media, especially those who own elements of it…to drown in their Neanderthal juices or soup of benign shame and reckless sensationalism when presenting stories, especially if the stories are about one particular ethnic group.
They remind me of “Fish Hooks” McCarthy who was a person that lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
He was right-hand man to Al Smith, the prototypical political person of his time. “Fishhooks,” the story goes, was devout.
So devout that every morning on his way to Tammany Hall to do his political work, he stopped into St. James Church on Oliver Street in downtown Manhattan, fell on his knees, and whispered every morning the same simple prayer: “O, Lord, give me health and strength. We’ll steal the rest.”
These media personalities I am referring to individuals want to create waves of “distrust and mistrust” in ACDA and the broader African Guyanese community.
These individuals will all fail because they are caught up in a “Circle of Self”…… self importance, self deception, self deceit, self indulgence, self denial and self destruction. They have become vertically integrated “communal shells” of misinformation and misdirection. These modern day Fish Hooks make the original Fish Hook look like a Saint.
Eric Phillips

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