The PPP/C is floating when it comes to public relations

Apr 01, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Bharrat Jagdeo does not get it… and never will. His call for his party’s supporters to take to social media to promote his party’s narratives of achievements exhibits his inability to come to grips with the public relations disaster within his government.

The government, of which he is Vice President, like the government of which he was President, has a problem not so much with selling its narratives to the people but with the persistence of anti-government criticisms.

But it has always been this way with the PPP/C. The PPP/C has always been besieged by criticisms about the manner in which it governs. Various attempts at trying to address its public relations shortcomings have failed, including attempts at bringing in public relations experts to help demystify its controversial investment projects.

The government has a wealth of sources to counteract its critics. Listed among these is the Guyana Chronicle, the Department of Public Information (DPI), National Communications Network (NCN) and the press office of the President. There are also a number of sympathetic and pro-government social media programmes which are aired regularly and which are aimed at giving the government’s side of issues and of attacking and counteracting anti-government criticisms. The government also has on its payroll highly lettered individuals who are really paid propagandists.

So what accounts then for the continued frustration on the part of the Vice President over criticisms of the government? The problem, however, is not purely public relations.  The problem is partly public relations but mainly political.

The government does not have an effective public relations strategy. Various parts of the government’s information machinery are involved in the dissemination of information. It is important in such circumstances that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, if not there is going to be disjointed effort at public relations.

Secondly, those who provide information about government’s development programmes are not necessarily best suited to counter political criticisms. Two different skills sets are involved here and this is part of the problem with government. It should not be requiring state-run government information agencies to do its political work.

The iron-fish with which the government controls NCN, the Guyana Chronicle and DPI needs to be slackened to allow media professionals to do their work. The PPP/C should not be asking media professionals to do its political bidding. Nor does it need to engage public relations specialists to counter anti-government criticisms there are sufficient Ministers who are quite capable of defending their portfolios and the government as whole. But confidence is not being shown in their ability to do so.

There is insecurity among the PPP/C’s leadership. A few individuals delude themselves into believing that it is only them and them alone who are capable of responding to opposition criticisms. And this attitude is at the core of the problem because often these same persons do not have the political wherewithal and savvy to effectively counter criticisms. And the positions they often adopt run counter to disposing of opposition criticisms, and often give more credence to such criticisms that are deserved.

Why, for example, does the government feel it has to take seriously anything that the Working People’s Alliance says. Even the Working People’s Alliance, which is a shell organization, does not take seriously its own ranting.  Why does the government believe it has to take seriously criticisms by those who lack credibility such as those who argue that 33 is not a majority of 65?

The fact of the matter is that the PPP/C will always be subject to criticisms. And it should not take every criticism seriously because in doing so, it is only giving credence to those who lack and are undeserving of credibility. The PPP has to learn to live with criticism.

The PPPC however is its worst enemy. It should not treat every criticism as being without merit. It should accept that there are merits in some of the criticisms leveled against it. For example, the criticism of conflicts of interest in terms of the composition of the Environmental Assessment Board is hard to dispute and the government should have moved with dispatch to correct this.

The government is also lacking in transparency. Information is hard to come by. The media does not have ready access to information. There is no longer the weekly Post-Cabinet Press Conference. There is no announcement even about when there will be a new Cabinet Secretary, a position which should have been long filled. The President rarely holds press conferences with the full local media corps.

Much of the criticisms about government’s management of the oil and gas sector have to do with the failings of the government and its lack of openness. Information which is promised is not delivered. Agreements that should require public consultations are suddenly foisted upon the nation

The PPP/C therefore can hardly expect to practice poor governance and still expect to be insulated from public criticisms. And that is something that Jagdeo will never understand.

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

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• anti-government, Bharrat Jagdeo, Chronicle, Guyana, Peeping Tom

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