A government’s vision is distorted by its own blinkers

Feb 18, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

It will take a lot more than letter-writing for the government to erase the perception that there has been witch-hunting and cleansing within the government. The media has refused to investigate the charges and responses which have been made on this issue.
This media has refused to investigate whether there were ethnic, political or other factors involved in dismissals, forced resignations and retirements since the APNU+AFC coalition came into office. The failure is reflective of the poor quality of journalism in the country but also, in part, is due to the divisions which exist in society.
This, of course, does not deflect from the concerns about the poor public relations of the Granger administration. The government has a whole bunch of young people running behind political leaders, reporting on every syllable out of their months and deeming this as public relations. But the kids to whom this task has been assigned are not to blame.
The leaders of Guyana have always been of the view that they know more about how to improve the public relations of the government than persons who are trained, qualified and experienced in the field.
The leaders will accept that their public relations is in a mess, but they will tell themselves that they do not need help in putting it right. They will convince themselves and those around them that they, the leaders, have the answers to fixing the problem, because they know what needs to be done.
A government’s vision is distorted by its own blinkers. What it thinks it sees is not what others are seeing. What it thinks it sees is not what really exists. But do not tell it to the leaders. They believe they know it all.
This trait is not peculiar to any government. The PPP persisted for years with one individual, even though it was clear that he was not getting the message across because people were no longer listening. The PPP engaged with boring and one-sided political debates about its many controversial projects seen, though it should have been obvious that the lack of balance in the panels was more a meeting of minds than a debate.
APNU+AFC‘s PR problems are part of a bigger problem. That problem is the mistrust and division between APNU and the AFC. APNU has no respect for the AFC. Forget all the fancy talk about being committed to the coalition. There are deep suspicions within APNU about the AFC. APNU is afraid that the AFC-controlled information machinery will shortchange its ministers.
The information portfolio should rightly be that of the Prime Minister. He is the Minister of Information. He should be responsible for all relations with the media and this includes post-Cabinet press briefings, which is a carbon copy of what the PPP had. The Prime Minister should also be responsible for reporting on the presidency. But this is not the case.
The information portfolio, while it supposedly falls under the Prime Minister, has been split up. There is a Department of Public Information which falls under the PM. Then there is the post-Cabinet Press Briefing which is usually hosted by the Minister of State within the Office of the President. Then the same OP has its own information unit which is heavily staffed and is headed by an ex-army official. All of this undermines the role of the Information Minister.
And this is the reason why there is no coherent policy. It is not that one cannot be developed. It is simply a case in which the information portfolio is split up among different units, thereby resulting in the confusion and ineffectiveness which is now evident.
The government will say that there is no need to fix anything; that it knows how to deal with the problem with changing the present arrangement. The government is however blinkered. It is not seeing what the public is seeing, because its refuses to get an independent assessment of things. In the meantime, while its popularity is falling, it believes its own propaganda that all is well in the state of Denmark.

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