This is a manifestation of the stupidity of power

Apr 28, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I honestly missed the denial by the Trinidad Government, that it did not forcefully deny repatriated Venezuelan refugee claimants, when I did my Wednesday column condemning the Trinidad Government for such an act. If I had seen that item, it would not have affected the main argument, because I would have covered myself by saying I do not believe. And I do not believe the Trinidad Government.
The right to believe and disbelieve is derived from natural law and is irrevocable by human society. I once described in these columns how important that right was within legal contexts, and I will do so again. I visited the home of KN publisher, Glenn Lall, and when I was leaving, retired judge, John Romao, was on his bridge (he lived across the road from Mr. Lall). He called me over to talk about my columns. This was about fifteen years ago.
I vividly recall his words “you must not call people liars, you’ll get sued, just say, you do not believe what they say.” Those words had a deep impact on my future commentaries. The retired judge explained the difference to me. He said it is your God-given right to believe or disbelieve and no one can sue you for that, but when you tell people they are lying, they can sue you for character defamation.
His words made sense to me. He sat as a judge and must have known that there was a legal acceptance of the right to believe and disbelieve. After he told me that, I ran it with some lawyers and a former Court of Appeal judge and they all agreed you cannot be sued if you say that you do not believe what another person said.
I did not believe the leadership of the government when the nation was told that the cabinet had nothing to do with the discontinuation of the Chronicle columns of David Hinds and Lincoln Lewis. I believe the corridors of power wanted them out. The Guyana Press Association this week, commenting on press freedom observed that the removal of the two writers was; “a situation that appeared not to have bothered government and its professed commitment to press freedom and freedom of expression”.
That was batting safely as they say in cricket jargon. The government intervened to have the men removed. Few persons commented on how stupid that attitude was, given what subsequently happened. Hinds and Lewis turned up in the Kaieteur News and in the edition that has the widest circulation in the week – Sunday.
How do you interpret this act of idiocy? It appeared to me that persons in the PNC’s leadership were worried about the influence of Hinds and Lewis on the constituencies where the PNC has its support. Here is where the asininity comes in.
If I sell breadfruit above market price in my village in Berbice and a columnist writing on agricultural subjects in Essequibo takes umbrage at my unreasonable pricing in his articles, there is every possibility that many persons in Berbice do not get that newspaper from Essequibo. But I am annoyed, so I use my contact to get him ousted. The writer turns up in Berbice itself and finds space in a newspaper there. What do you think will happen? More people in Berbice will read him. Your breadfruit price will be known to more people than before.
It is this silly bravado that the government performed in March in this country. The Chronicle’s circulation is virtually nothing compared with Kaieteur News’. It is like comparing a bathroom singer with Beyoncé. For every person that reads a Sunday Chronicle, two hundred more read Kaieteur News’ Sunday Special. If the government didn’t want its ethnic-based constituencies to be reading criticism of government’s performance because of fear of losing support, the situation now is beyond redemption. More people that reside in PNC strongholds buy a Kaieteur News than a Chronicle.
In removing Hinds and Lewis from the Chronicle, those scared politicians have allowed the two gentlemen to have a larger circulation. This makes absolutely no sense in politics. It was best to bear up with their occasional carping over the episodic mistakes of the administration rather than remove them. Look at the consequences.
So why did our insecure politicians do it? Because they never knew and will never know and will never understand the nature of politics. All they know and understand is how power must be used. It must be used to let the citizenry know that state institutions are the exclusive preserve of the rulers.

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