The politics of Guyana

Oct 11, 2011 Editorial

Guyanese are a people who for the greater part are dyed in tradition. Many would say that they cannot change because they have been doing something all their lives. And indeed when they do change, that change grabs the attention, sometimes for all the wrong reasons.
At the rally hosted by the People’s Progressive Party there was evidence that some prominent people who from all appearances were supporters of one or other of the opposition parties, made public appearances on the stage of the ruling party. This shocked many because Guyanese are people who do not surrender their traditions easily.
But such change of alliances has been nothing new. In the first instance the very first political party, the ruling PPP, saw some of its leading members moving away to form their own political party. That was how the main opposition party came into being fifty-six years ago. The people who would have voted for the breakaway group would have been people voting for the other party.
The 1980s saw other prominent people leaving the PPP for other political parties, notable among them Ranji Chandisingh and Halim Majeed. The former, eventually became General Secretary of the People’s National Congress.
The Alliance for Change is an offshoot of the two major political parties and again, there were raised eyebrows but as with everything, time allows for the acceptance of anything. And so we come to the recent movement of people from the main opposition to the ruling party. It is not that this is anything strange. A number of people had done the same thing in the not too distant past.
What makes it strange is that those who switch are made to feel guilty. They are questioned and they are forced to justify their decision. So far, the person who has deigned to justify his action is Joseph Hamilton, a one-time prominent member of the People’s National Congress.
The searching nature of the media has caused them to be placed in the corner of the political opposition. Over the weekend, President Bharrat Jagdeo classified every independent media house as being supportive of the opposition and of being on a quest to remove his government from office. Such accusation is nothing new.
In the days of the Burnham administration, the then President Forbes Burnham clamped down on the private media and on the media printed by the political opposition. That was stupid and childish and helped fuel the movement started by Walter Rodney.
Government’s hostility to media houses that criticize them is nothing new. Even in the United States where the president is criticized more and more there has never been the proposition that the United Nations should jail the reporters.
The private media might have been caught in a trap where in their zeal to be the watchdogs of society they noted the aberrations in development and reported on them. They also reported the observations of the society. The opposition should have been leading in this area but being weak and ineffective it was silent. The private media therefore stood out.
The problem came when the private media sought answers from the government and got none. Some people release the information but ask not to be identified. This is because they too are incensed but it makes them no less loyal to the state or to the state enterprise with which they work. It is unfortunate that many of the people who have answers opt to remain silent.
It is therefore unfair that the government in general and President Jagdeo in particular, would accuse the media of being supportive of the opposition. Stabroek News, during the tenure of the PNC was critical and could have been termed the political opposition. Has it switched sides?
We are willing to bet that the same Stabroek News would be critical of any government once things are out of order. It is the same with Kaieteur News. Criticism is not the prerogative of the opposition. In the media there are people of every political persuasion and no editor can change that. Some may wish to suppress the news as operates in the state media but such behaviour would not pass muster in the private media because for the greater part the private media owner would be keen on impartiality. That is what sells news and what makes the private media more popular than the state media.

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The politics of Guyana

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