The kill journalists elsewhere

Mar 26, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s chief policymaker and Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, took things over the top in his press conference on Thursday, March 21^st. He said that they kill journalists in other places. Due to the PPP/C Government’s great devotion to the ideals of democracy, however, that has not happened in Guyana. It is baffling that Jagdeo felt it necessary to mention that part about journalists getting killed while on duty. The question that can be justifiably asked is whether the vice president and chief policymaker was sending a message. A message that may mean nothing, or a veiled one that represents much menace.

Vice President Jagdeo is not a man who speaks idly, nor someone given to moments of humour. When he finds himself under pressure, especially from international sources, the worst spills out of him. He can control neither his temper nor his tongue, as he works himself into a probably premeditated rage, and comes ready to lash out at anyone who stands in his way. Taking all this into review, we do not think that it is going too far in believing that there is something sinister lurking behind Jagdeo’s words about the killing of journalists in foreign locations. Why even go there? Why did he take comfort in referring to such developments, given the often-tense relationship between the PPP/C Government and Jagdeo himself with some sections of the independent mainstream press? One has to wonder whether unsaid was that Guyanese journalists should thank their lucky stars that they have not been subjected to the fate of their international counterparts.

Policies, some unspoken and mostly unwritten, but always covert, can be developed to address those in the media thought of as threats, and with a view to minimising the exposures they represent. This publication has no qualms about where it fits into both the government’s and Jagdeo’s recurring episodes of white-hot rage. He is not one that takes too kindly to being made to look out of his depth, or deceptive, or one in bed with the foreign oil companies. When a leader of the known virulence of Jagdeo makes a point of bringing up the killing of journalists in foreign locations, we believe that it is not accidental. It is not a slip of the tongue for Jagdeo knows the kind of subtle message that he desires to send. Since the beginning of the millennium, he has counted intimidation to be among his most helpful companions. Success brings confidence, growing readiness.

Also, we at this paper are aware of how hostile uncontrolled elements in the PPP/C Government can be. It is something at which Jagdeo has compiled a not too flattering record, from the time when he was Guyana’s head of state, to this second go around when his recklessness and arrogance have gone past civilized limits. While the nation’s chief policymaker is careful to hide behind the veil of democracy, nobody should be foolish enough to let down their guard. For within the bowels of the PPP/C Government, incredibly even in its Cabinet, there are some characters who have had their histories, and their less than clean relationships. They are more than capable of taking out an offending human object or two. The only standards and conventions they comply with are their own, and they know that they can count on backing from the powers within the ruling People’s Progressive Party. In addition, there are the sensitive protective institutional powers in the State over which the party in government has the closest control.

Deep inside of him, Jagdeo knows that he had committed more than his share of egregious harms to professionals and entities operating under the banner of the Fourth Estate. Like fearful leaders before him, those who embraced the despotic and autocratic, he recognizes that he has gone too far, but is so convulsed by that state that he does nothing to correct himself. He finds more solace, therefore, in going down the same dark road, and thinking himself clever with his tabling of journalists being killed while in the field in foreign locations. PPP/C Government operators have repeatedly crossed the line to kill the character of dissenters. They could just as easily kill objectionable people.

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Editorial, Government, journalists, PPP/C, question

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