Dear Editor,

Please permit me to respond to GHK Lall’s letter ‘Hold your friends close and your enemies closer’ (SN, December 3). For the purpose of clarity it is better to address the media issues in point form. Here we go.

It would be helpful to understand that the Guyanese speech act is not noted for finesse and inference. The Guyanese speech act pattern is one of directness. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Guyanese have a confrontational way of speaking.

In non-confrontational speech patterns the speaker always gives the receiver of the message (the listener) a graceful way out. This is what Asians call ‘saving face.’ We do not do that here. Instead, we insist on constructing our position in water-tight ways so that the listener would be unable to respond. We take pride in ‘fishing up’ people. Folks tend to ‘pronounce’ rather definitively on matters.

Lall goes on at length about the way senior officials of GoG respond to questions from the media. I think he also meant to include President Jagdeo in that line-up. Readers need to understand this – you can ask questions that are truly intended to get information and/or clarification, or you can ask questions designed to ‘fish-up’ the official. The first is legitimate. In this case if the reporter does not get a straight answer she should ask again. Some journalists, however, ask questions for which they already know the answer.  In this instance, the journalist simply uses his position to advance a political agenda.

The idea is to trap the government official. Recall my comments about ‘fishing up.’ Once the journalist leaves the realm of news gathering, he opens up himself to the general politics of information. In a small society these things can take on a personal tone. Journalists must respect the Office of the President and the sitting President, whatever their views might be.

Lall goes too far with his point about threats. The biggest media threats in Guyana are in the letter sections, the Stabroek News electronic comments section, and on Guyanese TV. I have heard guests on Channel 6 openly call for revolution by any and all means necessary.

The station would have been sanctioned in most countries at a similar stage of development as Guyana. Needless to say, it is inconceivable that columnists and letter writers could possibly have greater freedom of speech anywhere in the world. Lall’s point about toeing the line appears to be more a matter of literary bravado than empirically observable facts.

GHK Lall’s invitation for well-founded and tasteful criticism must be taken seriously. Let the criticisms be well-founded and I am confident that they will receive proper responses.

Finally, I agree that we should hold friends close and our enemies closer. May I suggest though, that we hold our friends close, our enemies closer, and country closest. 

Yours faithfully,
Randy Persaud