“In the Diaspora” and Moray House: In the house in the gutter

Oct 08, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – The Stabroek News has a weekly column titled, “In the Diaspora” (ITD). It is edited by Dr. Alissa Trotz, one of the leading figures in an overseas group named Overseas Friends of the WPA. The article at the time of writing in ITD is by Dr. Trotz’s father who looks at the energy sector in Guyana.
Before I proceed, let me be pellucid, I see nothing wrong with Dr. Trotz inviting her father to do a piece in ITD. He is a scientist with a viewpoint to offer. I will return to Dr. Trotz’s incredible hypocrisy below.
Moray House is a think-tank run by the family of the late David DeCaires. It is in fact, the residence of the DeCaires family. Moray House sponsors frequent symposia, the latest being a talk by David Patterson, former Minister of Public Infrastructure. Here is where things get opaque.
Mr. Patterson is scheduled to talk on energy in Guyana. Why that topic and not on the role of the AFC in five circumstances – dual citizens in parliament; the no-confidence vote (NCV) of 2018 and the subsequent legal battle to invalidate it; the AFC’s position on the five-month election drama; the secret dimensions of the renewed Cummingsburg Accord of which Patterson was the AFC’s chief negotiator, the AFC’s five years in power.
From December 2018 to September 2020 when Volda Lawrence extinguished the flames of mo fyaah/slo fyaah in Region Five, Guyana was literally at the precipice. That continuous period constitutes one of the most vulnerable moments in post-Independent Guyana. A very young population still talks about the events that resided in that moment.
Why invite Patterson to dwell on energy in Guyana when that is not his forte. His forte is politics. He has been a parliamentarian since 2006. He was a minister of government for five years. He holds the position of General Secretary for his party, the Alliance for Change.
The subject here is not Patterson. It is Moray House. Why this institution has not sponsored an evening discussion on at least two subjects – how coalition in power operates and the five-month election imbroglio. What is the reason? It has to do with my theory adumbrated several times on this page – an anti-Indian, middle class bias. I will come to that after looking at ITD.
Since the NCV of 2018, the editor of ITD, Dr. Trotz has not touched the two issues of the NCV and the five-month election fiasco. Not one column has been devoted to the NCV and the March 2020 election. I repeat – not one column. Here is where astute editorship of a media house comes in.
The role of an editor-in-chief (eic) is to shape a media house to give readers and viewers an opportunity to understand the world by providing news that is important to be reported on and providing explanations on the meaning of events that make the news. The eic just don’t sit and proof-read.
As an academic since 1978 and a media practitioner since 1988, I was honestly sickened when I read the first edition after the election rigging of the Guyana Review which is a quarterly intellectual supplement in the Stabroek News. There was nothing on the rigging. No interviews, no scholarly analyses, no recap, nothing.
An editor decides which event holds importance for a nation. It was the job of the eic at Stabroek News to request Dr. Trotz to find analysts who have some expertise on constitutional and election systems to publish their thinking. You cannot tell me this was ever done by the eic and Dr. Trotz when the NCV was in December 2018 and the election insanity disappeared in August 2020. That is one year and eight months. To date ITD and Moray House have refused or are unwilling or don’t care to deal with both crucial events.
What is the explanation? What is the reason? In other words, what is the analysis? I have made my interpretation before on this page several times. I think it had and has to do with the Mullato/Creole middle class approach to Indian leadership in government.
Let’s quote Dominic Gaskin on the election rigging from his Facebook page of July 2020, “While I empathise with many who do not wish to see the PPP return to power, the harm that will certainly ensue can never justify what is contemplated.” Certain Mullato/Creole personalities, certain women groups, certain civil society entities for reason of class and colour do not want an Indian party to rule Guyana. This instinct if kept alive could and will destroy Guyana.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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