The Shaun Samaroo show and the Rodney Commission

Aug 11, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
Sunday last morning (yesterday) I was in church, at the First Assembly of God, on Durban Street, Wortmanville, just one block west of where I grew up. The occasion was the christening ceremony of the new born daughter of my Kaieteur News friend, Edison Jefford, during the service my phone rang three times. All the calls were about my letter in the Sunday edition of KN in response to what Chronicle reporter Shaun Samaroo wrote about me. The ringing was disturbing so I decided to put my mobile on vibrate mode. The third voice said to me, “Freddie, after what Shaun Samaroo did to Karen De Souza you saw what he did to Ogunseye? My reply was in the negative but I did say I would check it out
As soon I put the phone in the vibrate mode, another voice came on. This was someone at NCN whose identity I cannot reveal. The person informed me that there is a buzz going around in the Chronicle about a new editor and Mr. Shaun Samaroo’s name is being mentioned.
All of this makes sense. Samaroo said in his missive on me that President Ramotar, the Attorney-General and Roger Luncheon were the point persons in his appointment at the Chronicle to report on the Walter Rodney Commission. Why would Samaroo return to Guyana just to report on the Rodney Commission for the Chronicle?
When a person can publicly note in the newspapers that Guyana’s future depends on Minister Frank Anthony and Priya Manickchand then surely he must be a pin-up boy for the PPP because few if any would want to make that kind of amazingly idiotic observation. To capture the real horror of Samaroo’s imagination, we need to reproduce the exact quote.
Here are the words of Samaroo; “Priya Manickchand’s role in cultivating and shaping our future is second to none…the responsibility for developing in this generation falls on the shoulders of Ministers Frank Anthony and Priya Manickchand…in the hands of these two State officials rest the future of this nation.” I honestly feel that deep in the mind of Shaun Samaroo, there is mysterious chasm of madness.
I could understand the Chronicle taking this man. But how can the Stabroek News accommodate such a person? A human is entitled to his/her view but not as macabre s this. Guyana future’s will live or die depending on the vision of Anthony and Manickchand? My God! You find all types of humans in this world
Now for the spin on Ogunseye by Samaroo. I checked the Chronicle and the title screams out, “Ogunseye urges national cooperation for Commission’s work.” Now the article does not have a by-line. But it is an account of what took place at the last sitting on the Commission’s work. I think it is not only logical but perfectly logical to assume that it is the work of Shaun Samaroo since he has exclusive rights to cover the Commission’s content for the Chronicle
But let us play it safe and refrain from naming Samaroo as the reporter who compiled the story and composed the caption. The incontrovertible fact is that the Chronicle did to Tacuma Ogunseye what Shaun Samaroo did on Wednesday to Karen De Souza. I read three times Ogunseye’s closing remarks to the Commission and there is no semantic hint, vocabulary layout or grammatical subtlety that can lead a reporter to compose a headline that reads, “Ogunseye urges national cooperation for Commission’s work.”
Let me repeat, this piece of slanted journalism does not carry Samaroo’s byline but it is nevertheless the product of the Chronicle and I repeat that any human can conclude that since Samaroo is the Chronicle point man for reporting on the Commission’s testimonies then the Ogunseye piece was authored by him. Samaroo should tell us if he wrote the piece
I end with an affirmation published before – I will not support the Rodney Commission. Everything is context, context is everything. To boycott the Rodney Commission is not to deny justice to the Rodney family and Walter himself. But how can one ignore or forget the reality of the design of the Commission – to score nasty, dangerous political points that will further exacerbate the deadly racial divide in Guyana. The Rodney Commission was not implemented to give justice to the Rodney family and to situate Walter’s place in history. The Commission was invented to do what politics has always done to the soul of Guyana –destroy it
Frederick Kissoon

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The Shaun Samaroo show and the Rodney Commission

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