The media did not report on this speech of President Granger

May 28, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,
As we approach our 50th anniversary of Independence, the media needs to take a serious look at itself. Last Friday, the President of Guyana made a very important foreign policy speech as the keynote speaker at the CARICOM International Youth Reparations Relay and Rally. Beyond his comments on the Venezuelan situation, this speech was his most important foreign policy speech as he spoke to Ministers and Parliamentarians of the Guyana Government, his fellow Prime Ministers of CARICOM and to the nine leaders of Europe whose nations were involved in “the greatest crime against humanity”, slavery. This event was symbolically held at the Parade Ground in Georgetown, where, in 1823, the heads of over 200 African-Guyanese freedom fighters were decapitated and placed on poles as a warning to others not to rebel. Runners and participants from 28 villages and communities attended.
Yet, not a single private newspaper in Guyana carried his speech. This was a CARICOM sponsored event as President Granger is one of five Heads of States who are members of the CARICOM Heads-of-State Subcommittee on Reparations. Only the Chronicle reported the President Speech Why did the Stabroek News, Kaieteur News and the Guyana Times deliberately censor this very important speech and message from Sir Hilary Beckles? Clearly, the Owners and Editors of these influential newspapers do not want Guyana to hear President Grangers strong views on the topic and the fact that he publicly stressed the need for all Guyanese and Caribbean people to join the fight for compensatory payments from those who had enforced the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
In his speech, President Granger said: “What was done during the colonial times go to the heart of our existence. Thus, Guyanese and members of the Caribbean must have a vested interest in reparatory justice,” As reported in the Chronicle, President Granger went on to say that the case for reparative justice can be established in respect to three claims, given that for enslavement and genocide, which are crimes against humanity, victims ought to be recompensed because, Europe’s enrichment came through the wealth from the exploitations and deprivations of enslaved persons.
Guyana is seeking social cohesion but our People are not being given the facts by our major newspapers and are fed on a daily basis, a great amount of historical misinformation which prevents a better understanding of each other’s historical contributions to Guyana. In my address at the Rally, I also gave a brief report on the work of the Guyana Reparations Committee. This too was not reported even though I indicated that the Guyana Reparations Committee after 3 years of hard work, meeting weekly, has completed its reparations claim which will be presented to Guyana’s Attorney General for a resolution to be passed in Parliament. Jamaica has already unanimously passed a resolution and this was even sponsored by the Opposition PARTY in Jamaica. CARICOM recommends all states should pass a similar resolution.
I also made the statement that the Guyana Reparations Committee believes in social cohesion but this social cohesion MUST be built on justice and economic inclusion. Why should the descendants of enslaved Africans who lost 450,000 lives building Guyana over a period of 200 years during the worst crime ever, receive nothing, when all others groups in Guyana have receivedand continue to receive state benefits. We have witnessed during the Jadgeo regime, the greatest transfer of state wealth to his Indian ethnic constituency.
I seek an answer for the obvious censorship of the President of Guyana by theStabroek News, Kaieteur News and Guyana Times. This is a continuation of a practice of censorship of anything that highlights the gross inequality and injustices Africans have suffered in Guyana by not receiving lands , the basis of generational wealth creation, when all others;;;Amerindians, Indians, Chinese, Europeans have received lands from the State when it was the genocide of 450,000 Africans over 200 years that built Guyana and rescued it from the seas.
More importantly, where are the investigative journalists of these newspapers as we approach our 50th anniversary of Independence. I ask this question because over the last 3 months these newspapers, and especially the Guyana Times, have been printing political attacks against the IDB through letters from Peter Persaud who claims he is the Leader of the Amerindian Group, TAAMOG. He has claimed the IDB is discriminating against Amerindians because of some ludicrous sum of US$300,000 not being given to his and other groups to build capacity. How insulting to Amerindians whom have 13.8% of Guyana that US$300,000 will send them to the bread lines and prevent them from their independence as Mr. Peter Persaud claims.
Investigative journalism would clearly show these newspapers that Mr. Persaud and Donald Ramotar and a few others are using baseless letters against the Government and the IDB to claim “ethnic cleansing”, when in reality it is a vile attempt to hide the criminality of the PPP during the last 23 years as shown in the forensic audits which the Government of Guyana had asked the IDB to fund.
Even a clown would see through this strategy much less an investigative journalist. Even a child would realize that the strategy is to attack the IDB, the one international entity that has been the largest funder of Guyana in the last 20 years but which under the leadership of the current Country Representative, a woman, has not bowed down to the treats and bullying of the PPP, for Amaila Falls and several other projects but followed international standards which prevented billions of dollars of corruption in Guyana
Censoring the President of Guyana because he was addressing issues of critical importance to CARICOM and to all Guyanese, is almost an act of deliberate omission certainly a profound lack of integrity. Peter Persaud or President Granger …whom do you think is more relevant and more credible. One speaks of facts, the others of lies in an attempt at extortion and self-interest. Social cohesion will not be built on lies and fancy slogans and hiding the facts, but in addressing historical wrongs, ensuring economic inclusion and being truthful about our history. I have noticed that every time I write about the 450,000 Africans lives that were lost to build Guyana, a certain newspaper edits out this number. I have sent pictures of Luzia, the oldest person in this region, an African woman, yet this picture has never been printed. If our historical truths are being censored by the existing media, then Africans need their own media.
Eric Phillips

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