Latest update September 27th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 22, 2024 Editorial
Editorial…
Kaieteur News – Once in a blue moon ministers of the PPP/C Government have gotten the green light. It is now a parade of PPP/C Government ministers racing for the podium and microphone. This is how Bharrat Jagdeo has them, like little schoolchildren that have to stand straight and still. That is, until he barks a command like some Master Sergeant, and they all jump to share some canned stories. We wonder if the scripts from which they read will be prepared for them, which would not be surprising.
Who would have thought that in this era of instant communication, that ministers of a sitting government would be kept under muzzle and chain, as though they are some uncontrollable, irresponsible house pet? These are people with doctorates, medical degrees, law degrees, spiritual titles, and other credentials (some not so pure and true), and it’s as if they are all victims of some sort of domestic discipline. We plan to reach out to the appropriate ministry for a position on this, for there it was that these ministers, for the most part, were under what could only be called lock and key. If that is not political domestic abuse, then something is wrong with our understanding of what abuse is, and the signs of it.
So, now the Minister of Agriculture is free to hold press conferences, and we are glad for this development. First question for the minister is what about that Food and Agriculture (FAO) report on the limited study conducted on decline in fish catch, and the resulting plight of fisherfolk. Perhaps, he is more comfortable not having press conferences, especially with that issue hanging over his head. The Minister of Public Works has had a few things to say to the media about some projects, and always impresses as someone who is full of thunder about some project delay, until he turns out to be doing little about one blunder after another on vital and costly building projects. Contractors love him, and with all the leniency it is obvious why.
The Minster of Human Services and Social Protection must be thankful that the go ahead for press conferences begins in January 2024. There would have been ‘meet the press’ or face the nation’ with explanations (or apologies) for the fiascoes that were part and parcel of the recent Old Age Pension book distribution, and replicated in the one-off $25,000 cash distribution. With no responsibility to face the public for their respective portfolios on a consistent basis, these ministers have enjoyed a long three-year holiday at the taxpayers’ expense.
Then, there is the Minister of Natural Resources. To be frank, the management of the Natural Resources portfolio has been nothing short of unnatural, even out of this world. For here is this country sitting under an overloaded oil tree, and the subject minister was nowhere around for three long years, other than for some shaky and slippery appearances. Unfortunately, due to circumstances which were beyond the minister’s control, his role was to be content to sit and be an invisible and inaudible presence. In the presence of the nation’s big oilman, Bharrat Jagdeo, the poor minister was reduced to being seen and not heard. There was this delicious irony of the whole world overflowing with talk about Guyana’s oil (and other riches), and the Minister of Natural Resources was made into the fifth wheel to a coach. Now that he has been unshackled, one would hope that his press conferences would be regular, and that he would have answers, and not just repeat what the man in charge stuffs into his head. The oil is too precious, and it is too vital for these games to be played, and gone on for so long. In the season before, it was “talk to Vick.” Today, the hope here is that the minister will talk and not pass this around.
Meanwhile, the connection between greenlighting ministerial press conferences and national elections has been clearly established. It is propaganda time. Perhaps, somewhere in their conferences there will be elements of truth and what makes sense. Our hope is that none of them takes a page out of their master’s book, and engages in cuss-down and ‘buse-down’ when things get rough.
Let’s show them the POWER we have.
Sep 27, 2024
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