Dear Editor,
In the run-up to the elections in the USA, the pundits constantly remind all who would listen that one of the challenges faced by Barack Obama is his need to convince the American people that he could be “presidential”.
How does one define this other than falling back on that tried and true “I know it when I see it” argument?
Two events I noted, one during CARIFESTA and the later one during last week, must have raised a similar question among many in the context of the Guyana. I witnessed an exchange between President Jagdeo and Derek Walcott, the renowned Carib-bean cultural icon at a symposium during CARIFESTA. Mr Jagdeo was reacting to criticism by Mr. Walcott which, according to the amazingly candid President, did not take into account the political realities of having to get elected and re-elected.
The exchange continued for several minutes and deteriorated into an edgy back and forth that concluded with prudent withdrawal by the President from a situation that he himself had created.
The other incident during a press conference involved a direct and prolonged ad hominem attack by the President on Freddie Kissoon, the Kaieteur News columnist, whose writings have obviously irked the President. Now, Mr. Kissoon can do that to people with vitriolic statements which often undermine whatever positives may be contained in his writing, as is evidenced by the recent, unprecedented and tiresome exchanges with and criticism by columnists of his own newspaper.
Mr. Jagdeo like all of us is human but he is also President and too often his visceral reaction to criticism, unjustified or not, of him and his Government raises the same “it” question faced by Senator Obama.
On an unrelated matter, the question of accountability has been very much in the news recently but has any accounting ever been provided to the people for the well publicized Red House fund raiser which has become something of an annual event?
Yours faithfully,
Robert McRae
