Cabinet does not support the content of the recent Guyana Chronicle editorial that has been dubbed “racist,” and its position is in line with that of Chairman of the Board of the Chronicle Keith Burrowes, who apologised for the publication.
This is according to Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, who addressed the issue on Wednesday at his post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President.
“Cabinet has had quite some lengthy discussions on the content of the editorial and the way in which those constituents in the media and the body politic have reacted to that content.
There is no doubt that the sentiment of Cabinet mirrors those of [Chairman of the Board of the Guyana Chronicle] Keith Burrowes [in his apology],” Luncheon said.
Burrowes, in his apology, said that the Chronicle has done its outmost to ensure the promotion of racial harmony amongst citizens and has always tried to maintain a high moral and professional code of ethics in providing factual and balanced reporting. “I’d like to make it abundantly clear that the views expressed in the publication by no means are a representation of the majority shareholders, the board nor the management and staff of Chronicle…” Burrowes stated in the apology published days after the editorial.
The editorial, which was entitled ‘Opposition rampages to sow disunity in the country,’ included the claim that “Black youths are socialised by opposition leaders to think that Indians robbed them to get rich, so they automatically feel that they have to wrest by force, even murder, anything Indians have.”
The editorial generated a number of protest actions in the form of physical demonstrations and in some cases the symbolic burning of issues of the Guyana Chronicle and a groundswell of responses and reactions on social media and other fora. Several segments of society, including the Justice and Peace Commission of the Roman Catholic Church and the Working People’s Alliance, condemned the editorial.
Additionally, labour leader Lincoln Lewis has petitioned the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, accusing the government of promoting racism and discrimination against persons of African descent through the editorial. Among Lewis’ supporting claims for the petition was that President Donald Ramotar has failed to condemn the publication of the editorial.
