Robin Singh’s sins: Ignorance that is limitless

Oct 15, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – There are about a million Guyanese in and out of the land that one must not expect of them any public comment about anything on Guyana. That is the nature of billions of folks worldwide.

I have dozens of relatives in and out of Guyana who are like that. They are interested in knowing what goes on in their country, they want to know the facts and they look for such facts.

It is for columnists and commentators to provide them with opinions, analyses, and descriptions. I see myself as fitting into that role. I want to provide people with a picture of the three sides of a story, maybe four, five sides if a story has more than two sides.

Of course a story has many dimensions and those aspects must be presented to those who cannot pen a letter to the editor, but want to see the interpretations of opinion-makers.

Yesterday’s column was a rejection of the position Mr. Robin Singh took on Professor Randolph Persaud’s complaint that Stabroek News said that it would not carry his letters if they contain critical thoughts on the role and function of civil society.

In my piece yesterday, I opined that such a position was indefensible but Mr. Singh did the unimaginable and defended that position. I am not going to regurgitate my castigations of Mr. Singh here but to use this column to further elaborate on Mr. Singh’s position which I think is incredibly poor.

I will quote from Mr. Singh as I did several times in my article yesterday. He offered us a quote from the famous American media personality, Walter Cronkite: “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.”

If Mr. Singh believes that, then he has the urgent task of doing some reading of the voluminous writings of the founder of the PPP – Cheddi Jagan. Dr. Jagan had documented the role of the press in the conspiracies that led to the illegal removal of the Cheddi Jagan government in the sixties and the Allende government in the seventies and many others in the Third World.

The media as a friend of freedom and justice is a theoretical statement with the identical substance as other utterances like religion, civil society, private investors are the preservers of social stability. That is just good on paper.

A simple reading of European colonialism and American interventions in the Third World after World War 2 would instruct Mr. Singh of the role the press has played in using Christianity and imperialism to subjugate the Third World.

If Mr. Singh were a practising academic that devours world news, he would know that countless scholars in the world have argued that Fox News presents a dangerous threat to American democracy and has played and continue to play a destabilizing role in American society.

Mr. Singh should educate himself in the history of journalism and he would know one of the world’s most detestable personalities is Rupert Murdoch who has used his newspapers to undermine democracy in the UK, Australia and the US. Mr. Singh should immediately read a few biographies of Murdoch and he would withdraw his atrocious statement about the angelic role of the press.

Mr.Singh goes on to quote Cronkite, out of context of course. Here is a quote that must give you a heart attack: “Newspaper Editors are the keepers of the keys, they are also bellwethers for morality and decency in our society.” Really, Mr. Singh!

Well then how do you reconcile this belief with this opinion you have of Kaieteur News and I quote you once more: “Since the departure of Adam Harris from Kaieteur News I no longer have high regard for that publication and its offerings either.”

Now for the seminal question Mr. Singh should answer. If he doesn’t have high regard for Kaieteur News, aren’t others entitled to the position of not having high regard for Stabroek News? Many persons have told me since David DeCaires’ death, they no longer have high regard for Stabroek News.

I mean nothing personal when I say that if Mr. Singh was more known in Guyana, then I am assuming that he would have been in receipt of the unbelievable large number of complaints by people who said they cannot get their letters published in both KN and SN.

Now here is the part that Mr. Singh would find hard to believe. Since my column and his response, I have been sent letters by well-intentioned people that SN refused to print. Really, Mr. Singh, I am compelled to pronounce your understanding of journalism as incredibly poor.

(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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