Jagdeo’s flawed logic is a sign of desperation and fear

Oct 26, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News – Bharrat Jagdeo, with his signature bluster has once again demonstrated his talent for weaving logic out of air. His latest foray into rhetorical gymnastics involves labeling Glenn Lall—a man who has indicated his intention to play a role in the next election—as a “politician,” and therefore, by Jagdeo’s bizarre leap, transforming Lall’s newspaper, Kaieteur News, into a political mouthpiece. In Jagdeo’s world, this supposedly follows in the same way night follows day. But for those of us tethered to reason and logic, the connection between these two claims simply doesn’t exist.

Let us untangle this flawed syllogism. Even if Glenn Lall harbors ambitions for political involvement, that fact alone does not morph Kaieteur News into a partisan rag like The Mirror or The New Nation, the house organs of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the People’s National Congress (PNC), respectively. The distance between the personal aspirations of a publisher and the editorial independence of a newspaper is vast. Jagdeo, however, prefers to collapse that distance entirely, engaging in a pre-emptive strike that serves his own narrative but crumbles under scrutiny.

The flawed nature of Jagdeo’s argument is glaring when we juxtapose it with a recent historical precedent from across the Atlantic: Donald Trump’s ascension to the U.S. presidency in 2017. When Trump took office, there were serious concerns about conflicts of interest between his role as president and his sprawling business empire. Critics rightfully questioned whether Trump, a businessman-turned-politician, could effectively separate his personal interests from his public duties. The U.S. media, both liberal and conservative, pounced on this issue. But notably, no one—neither Trump’s harshest critics nor his staunchest defenders—claimed that the existence of his business empire inherently transformed Trump’s business empire into political platforms simply because of their perceived proximity to his interests.

Trump, in an attempt to address these concerns, took steps to distance himself from the day-to-day management of his business. He placed his assets into a revocable trust, delegated control of the Trump Organization to his sons, and publicly resigned from his business roles. Whether these steps were sufficient is debatable, but they underscore a crucial distinction: the individual and the institution are not necessarily one and the same.

By Jagdeo’s reasoning, however, any outlet that is owned by a figure who has entered the political arena must also morph into a partisan apparatus. It’s a flimsy proposition at best, and a disingenuous one at worst. How does he feel about a newspaper that is owned by his close friend?

But Jagdeo’s logic, if we can call it that, is not only flawed; it is pre-emptive. No political party has been formed by Glenn Lall. No formal campaign has been launched. Yet Jagdeo, with his usual arrogance, wants us to believe that Kaieteur News has already crossed into the realm of partisan hackery, simply because its publisher might one day seek public office. It’s akin to claiming that any journalist who interviews a political figure is instantly compromised, and that any media outlet daring to critique the government must secretly be a political tool.

This is not just a stretch of the imagination—it’s a gross distortion of reality. Jagdeo’s pre-emptive strike on Lall reveals more about his own insecurities than it does about the nature of Lall’s political ambitions or the editorial direction of Kaieteur News. If anyone is attempting to draw political lines in the sand where none yet exist, it’s Jagdeo. In doing so, he’s not only engaging in bad logic but also setting a dangerous precedent. If merely expressing a future intention to participate in politics is enough to discredit an entire journalistic enterprise, then freedom of the press is at the mercy of every politician’s whim.

In 2011, when Glenn Lall endorsed his former old friend, Donald Ramotar, Jagdeo, then President, did not deem the Kaieteur News, as partisan. Neither did the then Opposition. But now fearful that any independent candidate could undermine his party’s razor-slim one seat majority, Jagdeo wants to bring the hammer down on Kaieteur News and has the audacity to pretend that this decision is based on political logic.

Jagdeo’s attempt to discredit Kaieteur News is an age-old tactic: when you cannot silence your critics, delegitimize them. By branding Lall a politician and his paper a political tool, Jagdeo seeks to undermine the critical role Kaieteur News plays in holding his government to account. But no amount of rhetorical sleight of hand can erase the fundamental truth: Kaieteur News is not The Mirror, just as Lall is not yet a politician. To conflate the two is to engage in intellectual laziness, and to make that conflation public is to insult the intelligence of the very people Jagdeo purports to represent.

Jagdeo’s argument fails the simplest test of logic. If his standard were applied universally, then every businessman who ever thought about running for office would taint every institution with which they were affiliated.

The truth is, Jagdeo’s tactic is an evasion—an effort to sidestep the hard questions Kaieteur News continues to ask of him and his administration. Instead of answering those questions, Jagdeo would prefer to smear Lall and his paper. The people of Guyana deserve better than this pre-emptive strike and flawed logic. They deserve real answers, not rhetorical games. And no amount of dismissive sneers or political labeling will change that.

 

 

---

• hackery, Jagdeo's bizarre leap, Kaieteur News, Lall’s newspaper, People’s Progressive, simply

---