Artful Dodger or Clever Prevaricator?

Jun 28, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The question has its relevance in Guyana, definitely one that has merit. In the context of the occasional press conferences that Guyana’s President Ali holds the question gains stronger traction. Is the head of state of Guyana an artful dodger, or a clever prevaricator, in what he says, how he goes about responding to what is put before him? Though there is some overlap in the description, the concern is if they fit, and by how much, the head of Guyana’s President Ali.

It was the president who said from the very first days of his taking over the helm that he is about transparency and accountability. Truth be told, we were early converts to that which held so much resonance because Guyana needs both urgently. Furthermore, the freshness of the new president meant that he was due the courtesy and consideration. As such, the field was clear for him to prove his seriousness in managing the great responsibilities placed in his hands. Stated differently, President Ali had to deliver cleanly on transparency and accountability. No question that it was always going to be an uphill task in corruption plagued Guyana. Accordingly, it was imperative that Guyana’s newest and youngest president be at his sharpest, straightest, and strongest. What applied to President Ali holds true for any other president, which the record indicates is one littered with a litany of what was glaringly lacking in transparency and accountability. From national elections to one audit finding after another under different governments to longstanding public perceptions and outcries, transparency and accountability from Guyana’s governments have been a lost cause. Both are more of the imagination, with little relation to reality. For emphasis, President Mohamed Irfaan Ali had to be on his best game to deliver what he swore that he would deliver.

To our regret, the president has proven a big disappointment. On the twin issues of transparency and accountability, he has progressed from gyrations about what is “confidential” to what is comical. President Ali may deceive himself into believing that he is making mincemeat of Guyanese, when he tries those now patented gimmicks of his. One is having an entourage that runs interference and works skillfully to steer media questioners from could make the president look less than favourable to safe grounds. Vice President Jagdeo, as fine a presence as one could come across in the cleverness department, has lived high and heartily from the presence of such a protective media Palace Guard. They are not mere distractions to the work of true Guyanese media professionals. They are a danger to those seeking straight answers to simple questions that must be asked. Clearly, President Ali has learned from the best in that kind of media game. A cursory observation of his press conference practices shows how quickly he has grown into a power in his own right in media dodges and leadership prevarications.

President Ali introduced a cute one in his last press conference. When he was asked a question, the Guyana head of state swiftly turned around the question with a series of questions of his own on the journalist who first raised the question. We do not know if the president came up with that dodge on his own, or whether it was the guidance given to him by one of his advisers. Whatever the source of President Ali’s newfound practice, it did three things. It cheapened his last press conference; it made him look like an elephant barging his way around a media meeting and barreling over those stirring his clever and lesser instincts. And last, it confirmed how much transparency and accountability drives the president into states of irritability and reckless irresponsibility. The simplest, straightest, thing that the circumstances required was for President Ali to come clean and make a start to what he committed to a few years hence. He failed miserably.

President Ali may not know, not care. But few Guyanese are fooled by his media sleights of hand. Guyana is under critical scrutiny, with his leadership holes are exposed. He should work to fix those, and Guyana could be different. He continues down his now old slippery slope, he could find himself plunging into ignominy.

Conferences, Guyana, President, press, question

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