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Media intimidation

Apr 03, 2023 Editorial

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – It is astonishing what comes from our government and leaders in this country.  His Excellency, President Ali likes to speak brightly about how much he and his government are for transparency and accountability. However, when questioned about developments in the most vital economic sector in Guyana, the President engages in ploys that reflect poorly on his leadership.

His Excellency should appreciate that we live and operate in a different time, and with standards expected to match.  This is not the time of Forbes Burnham when the media could be squeezed and strangled out of existence. The elections in which his party emerged victorious occurred because the independent media was everywhere, and calling matters with accuracy, professionalism, and journalistic integrity.  As President Ali knows fully well, this publication played its part in that time of national trial, which led to where he is as Guyana’s head-of-state.

President Ali should know also that our job does not end when elections are over.  Instead, it has just begun, especially now that Guyana is at a place never known before.  Guyana is now the owner of billions of barrels of proven oil reserves, which means that the prosperity of every citizen is, for good or bad, inseparably tied to our oil discoveries.  Guyanese need to know as much as they can, and soonest.  Not when the government decides that they should know, and then only sharing the kind of sketchy detail that protects the government’s interests.

The independent media, therefore, has a duty to keep pushing and probing for answers.  If the end result of that are discomfort and intolerance by government and its leaders, then it is a burden to be borne.  Also, the President needs no reminding that Leonora is his hometown, and that almost all in that area depend on his favours.  No one is going to be so foolish as to disagree publicly with his answers to questions.  It is more than the expected partisanship prevailing, since more villagers and other attendees at the President’s outreach know that jumping on the President’s bandwagon is sure to be rewarding to them.  The government cannot be this insecure that hecklers and intimidators from any quarter for any occasion suit its purposes.

The heckling and attempts at intimidation of journalists by his own supporters at Leonora should have been stopped with a negative wave of the President’s hand. It would send a message that the media has its place, and that it is one to be respected.  For him to sit there untroubled, as if the audible media intimidation was the most normal thing in the world does not accrue to his credit.  There is a time for politics, and a time for governing, the same clean governance which the President insists that he is about.

Clean governments and upstanding leaders do not fear any question from any source on any issue.  When the issue is one of national significance, and also the most talked about, then tough questions have their place.  After all, this is the patrimony of the people, and much of what they have been told either does not add up, or, has huge holes begging to be filled.  The gas-to-energy project is one such issue prominent in the considerations of Guyanese.  We cannot speak enough about it, given its price and later implications.  To be clever with information provided on the project, or withhold what the people ought to know, so that they can make their own decision as to its benefit for them, is neither government nor leadership transparency.  Worse still, for supporters to object to straightforward questions on the same project and to interfere with the operations of the independent media is unacceptable in a democratic society, any that aspires to such.

Recently, we have observed President Ali and his supporters behaving in the manner of the old PNC in their attitudes and actions to the media.  This is not healthy for our democracy, and it is unhelpful to our efforts to get the best from our national patrimony.  President Ali should rein in those who have no interest in clean and open governance.  He must set a clear example, what the standard is going to be.

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