Congratulations Glenn! And to your newspaper!

Apr 06, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News is Glenn Lall’s newspaper. While it obviously takes many hands – editors, reporters, pressmen, layout artists, proofreaders, administration staff and columnists – and a great deal of effort to publish a newspaper, Kaieteur News would have long folded had it not been for Glenn. He has been the backbone of this newspaper over the past 25 years.
Kaieteur News would not have survived without Glenn Lall. His courage, his tenacity and his fixed principles have been the foundation upon which Kaieteur News has sustained itself since its establishment in April 1994.
Weaker mortals would have quit. Starved of government ads for its first ten years and then having to endure tragedies and political venom, would have broken the resolve of most men. But not Glenn Lall. He was determined that no government would put him out of business. He has been successful in repelling the vicious attempts of those who wanted Kaieteur News to become compliant to their wishes.

Others have tried to start their own newspaper. They have all fallen by the wayside. But Glenn did not fail. He has created an institution, one that has been in the forefront of making a difference.

Glenn has changed the face of newspaper publishing. All of the traditional private daily newspapers in British Guiana and in independent Guyana, prior to the arrival of Kaieteur News, were owned or controlled by persons who represented particular class interests. And even though Glenn was fairly well-off when he decided to start his newspaper, he was not born into the elite classes that had dominated newspaper publishing for more than 100 years. Neither was he representative of those interests.

Glenn came out of the bowels of the working class. He has established a newspaper and kept it going for 25 years so far. No other person of such a background has ever been able to do that in Guyana, and I daresay in the entire Caribbean. It has been a monumental achievement on his part.
Being outside of the elite class, so to speak, attracted jealousies and resentment, especially when Kaieteur News began to challenge the hegemony of the more established newspapers. The political players also became worried when they realized that the newspaper was not going to be beholden to them. As such, attempts were made to suppress Kaieteur News.
Kaieteur News attracted further hatred when its reporting began to pose a challenge to the established political order. In particular, its crusade against corruption and wrongdoing enraged the political directorate and attracted their wrath.
Glenn has always emphasised that if you do not stand up for something in this life, you will fall for anything. And he was prepared to stand up for what was right. Kaieteur News’s banner of pro-truth and pro-justice was labelled as being anti-government in an attempt to discredit the newspaper.
When there was a change in government in May 2015 and people were asked what led to this change after 23 years, one of the answers was Kaieteur News. There was a groundswell of opinions, which held that it was Kaieteur News’s exposure of corruption, which led to a change. The present Prime Minister of Guyana in a congratulatory message has confirmed that it was Kaieteur News’s exposure of corruption, which ignited the movement for change.

But Glenn and Kaieteur News did not set about to create regime change. They simply did what was expected of an independent publisher and newspaper – they exposed corruption and wrongdoing. They did it then and they are doing so now under a new government. He is keeping those in power accountable.
Glenn, through his work, is still making enemies. But Glenn and Kaieteur News have been consistent. They have been faithful to their mission of exposing wrongdoing, no matter the source of that wrongdoing.
The middle-class, which still controls the main political parties, and by extension the State, has never given due credit to Glenn Lall for what he and his newspaper have achieved. They have shunned him because they do not see him as representing their interests. But that mark of distinction is a mark of honour.
This column congratulates Glenn Lall and the Kaieteur News on its 25th anniversary. The newspaper has created history in Guyana. Glenn has been a towering example of how persons who are outside of the political elite can make a difference once they remain true to their principles and refuse to become pliant and submissive to those in power.
It takes enormous courage in a society like Guyana to stand up and stand alone. Glenn has been blessed with enormous reserves of courage to stand up for what he believes, even if it means standing alone. Congratulations Glenn! And to your newspaper!

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