Of all the holdovers from the Jagdeo Administration, Roger Luncheon is perhaps the most notable. We had heard that the man was not in the best of shape and indeed we had witnessed his considerably less than free and unhindered physical movement during his public appearances for the Jagdeo vs. Kissoon et al court case. But the doctor soldiers on regardless.
It’s not good news for the media though. Doctor Roger has been the determined gatekeeper for the PPP/C Government for just about all of its time in office and he has tended the gate like a security guard that never sleeps. True enough, his understanding of things like Public Relations and Image Management stinks, but that is not his job. The Doctor’s job is SPIN.
Now this is where you would have to tell yourself that President Ramotar’s judgment is flawed. Even if the Doctor were Shane Warne, leg breaks are leg breaks and we have had more than enough time to figure out the Doctor’s SPIN to realize what sort of decision he is bowling for. The funny thing is that if the Doctor has now become too old and too predictable to fool anybody anymore, he continues to trundle away, bowling the same line and length and being met with broad bats and dour defences. It doesn’t help. It didn’t help Jagdeo and it certainly wouldn’t help Mr. Ramotar. What will happen is that Luncheon will continue to wheel away and his deliveries will continue to turn in the same direction and the public will continue to play them, pad first, with cynical grins, recognizing the deliveries for what they are…………ORDINARY SPIN. The public wouldn’t budge and Luncheon wouldn’t, either. He can’t! The man just doesn’t know any different.
Perhaps it will take the media to force President Ramotar’s hand. Perhaps if the media houses, the genuinely independent ones, that is, take a different batting stance, venturing out of the their creases and going over the top from time to time that may result in the Doctor’s deliveries being deposited in the stands frequently enough for the President to pull him out of the attack and banish him to some place beyond the boundary.
The media are the batting side and it is they who must decide just how to deal with Luncheon. The batting has been inept……like the West Indies’…………most of the time. Here’s a reporting gem from a section of the print media regarding Luncheon’s take on the Rubber Bullets affair.
“With regards to the incident that occurred on December 6, when officers opened fire on the APNU supporters at Square of the Revolution with rubber bullets for staging an illegal protest, Dr Luncheon explained that in the context of the type of protest actions that occurred before, there are very good reasons for the resort of force but only when the situation calls for it.”
Now we accept that these were not Luncheon’s actual words but read it again, perhaps two or three times more. It appears, from what is being reported, that what Dr. Luncheon is actually saying is that the decision to use of the rubber bullets had nothing to do with the orderliness or otherwise of the protestors during that particular demonstration but was taken “in the context of the type of protest actions that occurred before.”
