Dear Editor,
I refer to this laptop for families episode, and the pious statements by our Head of State to the effect that, the Kaieteur News is now, as he puts it, a part of the opposition, and is trying to deny citizens the opportunity to share and obtain information. Here we have the quintessence of hypocrisy and diversionary tactics.
First, Ms Jennifer Webster is a Minister within the Ministry of Finance with substantial experience in the public service. Therefore, when she made the statement in Parliament, and there were audible expressions of alarm from the opposition benches, it ought to have dawned on the good lady, her cabinet colleagues and the plethora of government advisers present that she had made an error.
They through her had ample time to make a correction. And now, therefore, with the government’s inglorious track record of bizarre contracts like the Stanleytown pump, how can we avoid the perception that this might have been an attempt at a rip-off by the powers that be. But, thanks to the exposé of the Kaieteur News and other media, the President steps in to put a mask over this odious situation, but his outburst that the opposition wants to deny ordinary people access to information is ludicrous, and assumes how easily they believe the masses can be fooled.
If there was a drop of sincerity, then the President could immediately ensure that those who applied for radio licences were granted such immediately, and that non-state controlled television stations that had been seeking for years to expand their signals to the whole of Guyana were allowed to do so without further delay. Imagine the people in communities such as Linden can only hear the government side of a story on their radios and televisions. I know two business groups that applied to set up television stations for that community but have failed to get government’s permission. One group has migrated in frustration.
So much for this nonsense being peddled that the government’s gurus really want people to have access to information and knowledge.
We recall Stabroek News was denied government advertisements because they dared to report facts, and not government propaganda. This situation continues unabated, and I am surprised that the public and civil society have not made this denying of public advertisements to the independent media a major issue. A friend drew to my attention, the contents of Sunday, February 13, 2011 Guyana Chronicle and here we found a shameless, brazen bias by the state that told the world that they ushered in a return to democracy. That edition had fifty-six government and government controlled advertisements, including eight full-page advertisements plus those from GuySuCo, GWI and GPL, which are under political manners. This is PPP justice.
These are the things that matter. If you suffocate and put economic pressure on those who dare to expose, or even to express views contrary to the party in office, we are certainly sliding toward an elected dictatorship; they did not even have the decency to place advertisements from the Ministry of Culture related to the Year of People of African Descent in the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News. Few African descendants take the trouble to read the government-controlled Chronicle.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP
