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Face the Press, Mr. President!

Dec 25, 2024 News

Front Page Comment…

 Kaieteur News- The truth fears no question. But within the incumbent PPPC government, truth often cloaks itself in silence.

On November 1, 2019, this newspaper reported Bharrat Jagdeo, then Opposition Leader and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, as delivering a scathing critique of President David Granger’s failure to hold regular press conferences. How ironic then, that President Irfaan Ali, Jagdeo’s protégé now faces a similar accusation.

More than four years into his presidency, Ali’s engagements with the full press corps are rare and sporadic. It has been quite some time since he last met with the full press corps. The President now prefers to hold court with handpicked media operatives. He prefers the sit-down with select persons rather than to stand up and face the full media corps. This practice, unworthy of a Head of State in a democracy, is a betrayal of the very principles the PPP once brandished as its moral sword.

Where is the President’s courage to face the press in its entirety? Where is the respect for the citizens who deserve answers to questions that matter—questions about the nation’s oil wealth, crime, the cost-of-living and the murky dealings concerning public procurement. To sidestep the press is to sidestep accountability, and to sidestep accountability is to sidestep democracy itself.

Let us not be fooled by token engagements or answers to questions on the sidelines of events. Democracy demands substance, not spectacle. A press conference is not merely an event; it is an institution. It is the arena where leaders prove their mettle, where their words are weighed and measured against the gravitas of reality.

By avoiding this crucible, President Ali undermines his office. A leader who fears questions is a leader who fears his own inadequacies. A government that cannot endure scrutiny is a government that forfeits legitimacy.

This newspaper calls on President Ali to confront the media, not in curated interviews or controlled settings, but in the open, unfiltered glare of a full press conference. Let the journalists, all of them, ask what they must. Let the President answer what he can.

If President Ali believes in his government’s record, he should have no hesitation in defending it. If he values the trust of the people, he should have no fear of addressing them through the press. The absence of regular press conferences is not just an omission; it is an abdication.

Mr. President, the nation waits. The press waits. Will you rise to the occasion, or will you remain in the shadows of convenience? The time for excuses has long passed. It is time to face the full press and to do so regularly.

Face the Press, Mr. President!

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