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Politics of distraction
Editorial…
(Kaieteur News) – The government appears determined to move the national conversation away from the horrendous MV Barima tragedy, in which more than 100 lives were lost, and toward a carefully choreographed programme of community outreach.
The tragedy has left families grieving and a nation demanding answers. Questions about safety, accountability, negligence and responsibility cannot simply be pushed aside. Yet, instead of confronting the anger and uncertainty gripping the country, the administration appears to have shifted into public-relations mode, with President Irfaan Ali himself leading the charge.
Fresh from the controversy surrounding his sprawling farm along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, the President has now unveiled a project being presented as a “model village.” But the more one examines this initiative, the more it appears that even the government has not settled on what exactly this model village is supposed to be.
Where is the coherent plan? What makes it a model? What extraordinary amenities or innovative features will distinguish it from any other properly developed community?
Apparently, the answer is more garbage bins, fire hydrants and trees.
One would expect a model village to showcase facilities and services that represent a higher standard of living—modern recreational spaces, efficient public transportation, innovative waste-management systems, community health facilities, upgraded schools, reliable infrastructure, green technology and other amenities that could serve as examples for communities across the country.
Instead, Guyanese are being asked to applaud the provision of basic necessities.
Since when did garbage bins, fire hydrants and trees become luxuries worthy of being packaged as a presidential model-village initiative?
These are not extraordinary benefits. They are basic responsibilities of a functioning state. Every properly planned community should have adequate fire protection, proper waste disposal and trees and green spaces. Government should not need a special “model village” programme to provide them.
And therein lies the bigger problem.
The issue is not really the bins, hydrants or trees. It is the apparent attempt to substitute activity for accountability.
While the Government launches outreaches, citizens are protesting. Questions continue to be raised about the handling of the Barima tragedy. The controversies surrounding the President’s farm have not disappeared. Questions about mining concessions and other matters of governance remain unresolved.
And there is growing public anger over President Ali’s refusal to remove or replace senior ministers Juan Edghill and Deodat Indar amid mounting criticism of their performance and conduct.
The government’s public-relations machinery appears increasingly unable to keep pace with the anger. Social-media operatives and paid defenders may attempt to drown out criticism, but they cannot erase what citizens see, hear and experience for themselves.
A government can deploy all the communication strategies it wants, but there comes a point when public relations cannot substitute for public accountability.
The families who lost loved ones on the Barima deserve more than expressions of sympathy and ceremonial gestures. They deserve a full accounting of what happened, who was responsible, whether warnings were ignored, whether safety standards were breached and what will be done to ensure that such a disaster never happens again.
The opposition must not retreat. Civil society must not retreat. The independent media must not retreat. And citizens must not retreat.
The government should understand that community outreach cannot replace good governance, photo opportunities cannot replace accountability, and public relations cannot bury legitimate questions.
Guyana is now an oil-rich country with enormous resources and enormous possibilities.
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