From the Diaspora…‘We are in this thing together… we’re on the road to dictatorship’

Sep 28, 2014 News

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By Ralph Seeram
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty,” said President Thomas Jefferson.
I came across the quote on an office bulletin board this week. As I pondered on the words of that famous United States President, my thoughts travelled across the ocean to Guyana. Does the Government of Guyana fear the Guyanese people?
The answer to that question is obvious to all Guyanese. This PPP government has absolutely no fear of the populace. It spends taxpayers’ hard earned money as it wishes, as if it is personal property and to hell with what the populace thinks.
It ignores Parliament and to hell with what the opposition (which incidentally represents the majority of voters) thinks. It gives away taxpayers’ dollars in TAX FREE BENEFITS to companies in secret deals, and to hell what Guyanese people think. There is no fear, no fear of repercussions.
Since the government has no fear of the people, by extension there is tyranny if we should use President Jefferson’s logic.
Here however is a contradiction. The Government may not fear the people, but it certainly fears the press, especially Kaieteur News. The press is merely an extension of the rights of individuals. The press does not have any special “rights”; it merely exercises the rights vested in the people.
The PPP Government has however lost sight of this fact, as can be drawn from recent revelations with the GRA and the barrage of libel suits against this newspaper in an effort to silence criticism of the government, silence dissent, and silence the rights of the citizens to question the government through the media.
When you look at the email released about the GRA emailing information to the former President, you can’t help but conclude that there is a concerted effort, conspiracy if you may (we are in this thing together) to not only silence the voice of the people, but to try to ruin them financially.
When a government decides to use the police powers of the state to retaliate against citizens’ criticisms, engage in vindictiveness, be spiteful, try to silence the media, engage in victimization, then we are well on the road to dictatorship. That’s what dictators do; they muzzle dissent, control the judiciary, breakup trade unions etc.
The GRA head Khurshid Sattaur, thinks that a good offence is the best defence. I can tell Mr. Sattaur this, he is lucky that he is in the Guyanese jurisdiction. Were he in Florida, or other State here in the US he would be sitting in prison.
The problem is the Government appoints political hacks.  I feel strongly about press freedom, and I’ll tell you why, and I really hate to go back to the PNC days because the PNC dictatorship is really irrelevant today, save as a reference point. The PPP Government has been in power for 22 years now, whatever happens now is that party’s responsibility.
Never the less, my feeling for press freedom stems from the fact that in the 70’s the heights of PNC power I worked as a journalist for two newspapers and for about four years for the government-owned radio station. The PNC controlled the media, starved the opposition of newsprint, printing supplies etc. so the opposition had no way of disseminating their views.
You did not report stuff that would not “see the light of day”. It was a kind of self censorship.
I recall Dr Cheddi Jagan complaining to me in Berbice that we were not carrying the PPP views; I suggested he speak to my editor.
Today even a nincompoop can call the President of Guyana a nincompoop. The only person I can recall called Burnham all types of insulting names was the late Dr Walter Rodney.
All those “backroom secretive deals” that have Bharrat Jagdeo’s fingerprints on them like the Hydro Project, the Marriott Hotel deal, the new International Airport, Specialty Hospital, Tax free concessions to Chinese logging companies and the list goes on, are coming to light.
From all appearances the Guyanese taxpayers are having the “short end of the stick”. With the kind of exposure this newspaper has revealed on those projects and the latest emails, those in the corridors of power, I am sure, are wondering who in their midst they can trust. A word of advice to them, take a hint from the US where from the Pentagon Papers to the latest Snowden revelations of US government spying on it citizens, employees will always expose wrongdoing in government.
Why? Because they are more loyal to their country, than to politicians.
In this entire episode where does President Donald Ramotar stand? President Ramotar needs to step up and state clearly whether he gave permission to the GRA to release information about Kaieteur News to the former president.
Some in the PPP are panicking, they are pushing back hard, their lackeys are doing the same “we are in this thing together”…” to break the camel back”. Fortunately, the final arbiter of justice is not the Guyana Courts; it’s the Caribbean Court of Justice.
In the end justice will be served and Kaieteur News will be vindicated. The people will not be stifled. Ralph Seeram can be reached at email; [email protected] and Facebook.

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