Latest update April 16th, 2026 12:40 AM
Govt. press conferences
Kaieteur News – PPP/C Government press conferences have degraded into perversities. When there is an occasional press conference held by President Ali, Guyanese hear their leader parroting lines perfected by ExxonMobil to lead the people astray. There is a premium in this country by the government that emphasizes accentuating the positives, while there is pretending that the many negatives do not exist.
To begin with, when Vice President Jagdeo holds what he labels a press conference, he has made it his practice to do so from his party headquarters, Freedom House. Guyanese are now forced to depend for information on their business and interests from Freedom House. It is revealing about how much the party is paramount, with a page from Forbes Burnham’s book, when Jagdeo could easily make use of his own office, or Office of the President, or the Arthur Chung Convention Center. No! vital matters of the State must now emerge from the bowels of Freedom House, which is an insult to all citizens. Also, Jagdeo deals with oil matters with those in backdoor media whom we would charitably categorize as people barely literate in business, finance, or similar such disciplines, sometimes even poorly equipped with the nuances of the English Language.
When President Ali does descend from his Olympian throne to share information with Guyanese, it is as if he blesses them with what they do not deserve. We will ignore for now the restrictions that the President placed on the media in his last press conference. If that was a press conference, then the effluence of the sewer has overtaken Guyana. For the longest interval, during the most demanding time in Guyana’s history, President Ali has shied away, slithered away, and hopped, skipped, and jumped away from holding press conferences where there is an open field for frank, probing questions. Now, when he did hold one, it was a mockery of democracy’s liberties, and the leadership accountability, which he claims for himself.
The President, likely acting on orders, chewed out a good chunk of the clock, which limited bona fide media professionals from putting what he said under the microscope. The fix was in, and the President and his people saw to that, in the farce that masqueraded under the name of press conference. President Ali spoke bountifully about the national economy, and how much better it is doing than so many of its peers, so many anywhere on earth. One cannot help but hear echoes of the public relations stunt that ExxonMobil’s Country Head, Mr. Alistair Routledge, had pulled on Guyanese. According to the clever Mr. Routledge, the horrendous 2016 oil contract is the best thing that ever happened to this poverty plagued country, since it gave Guyana the greatest revenue stream that this place has ever known.
When we heard President Ali speaking glowingly about Guyana’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) at his Wednesday press conference, there was the sense of having heard that before. It was another version, with presidential subtitles, of prior ExxonMobil’s public relations artfulness, and Mr. Routledge’s skillful propaganda. The President can talk himself to tears all over the world, but he cannot bring himself, or order his oil champion, Vice President Jagdeo, to talk about renegotiation of the 2106 contract with ExxonMobil’s Mr. Routledge.
Moreover, President Ali makes a nice living informing everyone how his PPP/C Government is wise and prudent in handling the business of Guyanese. When either the president or Government is about what is wise and prudent, Guyanese will know, and the results will show. For one, there is a growing bundle of debt, and just servicing the debt load could be a drain on the national purse. For another, the government has splurged extravagantly on a variety of infrastructure projects, while too many Guyanese do not have enough to eat. Frankly, President Ali, should hang his head in shame, which could be one of the explanations for his constant hiding from the independent press, his media handcuffs. Guyana is on the top of world statistically. On the basis of this alone, President Ali should be about what has credibility. Instead, President Ali has satisfied himself with the sneaky, the tricky, and the slippery with the media and Guyanese.
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