On August 24th last year, Stabroek News reported Minister of Public Affairs Kwame McCoy as saying that President Ali would be having regular engagements with the media and public.
“We will have post-Cabinet briefs and the president… is committed to having regular press conferences, because communicating with the public is an area he takes very seriously,” Minister McCoy said.
“It is not just engaging with the press but it goes further as he plans more engagement and communication mediums with the public. Bringing information to the public in a timely manner is of utmost importance to the president,” he added.
The same news item had reported that President Ali himself had told this newspaper on the sidelines of his attendance at an event at Crane that taking the public for granted and ignoring calls for communication would not be a mistake his government makes. He also said that he would ensure that there is access to both him and his ministers because public trust and accountability starts with effective communication.
Eight months since he entered office President Ali has not lived up to the commitment to convene regular press conferences where he would take questions on a range of subjects from reporters. On September 7th last year, President Ali shared a press conference with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and answered some questions. The President has not held such a forum since. On January 30th this year, what had been described as an `Address to the Nation’ on COVID-19 and the detention of Guyanese fishermen in Venezuela was transformed into a public briefing without any advance notice to the media. This was unacceptable. There has been no further attempt at a press conference.
President Ali has kept up a hectic pace of engagements throughout the country in which he has made time to speak to members of the public. This is indeed commendable as in the case of a recent visit to Yakusari, Black Bush Polder. He has also spoken to reporters on the sidelines of events and answered questions which is however limited in terms of what can be asked and answered. The President has also made himself available for interviews with select media houses.
None of these types of engagements can be a substitute for presidential press conferences where the President takes a series of questions and follow-ups on a range of issues from journalists representing an array of media houses. The presidential press conference is an effective channel through which the public can be better informed of government policies and decisions via probing questions from the media.
It also establishes accountability at the top as it relates to commitments that have been made in the elections manifesto, for example, the creation of 50,000 jobs. It also enables the public to assess the President’s command of the issues before him, his judgement and his manner of handling contentious questions from the independent media.
On a daily basis there are any number of questions that the media would be seeking answers from the President on such as COVID-19, the oil and gas industry, the huge public sector infrastructure programme and law enforcement.
Having not established a pattern of regular press conferences, there is a risk that the government will begin to feel it is in a zone of comfort by avoiding probing questions from the media. That would be a huge mistake that will come back to haunt it. The best example of an accountable administration is one that makes its Head of Government – in this case also the Head of State and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces – available to the media at regular briefings.
One should not even have to draw a comparison with the record of the journalist/historian President, Mr Granger who held three press conferences in five years and exuded great reticence in taking questions from journalists. President Ali should be holding press conferences at least once a month in addition to ensuring that Cabinet decisions are made known to the public as soon as possible.
