Dear Editor,
Let me declare that the views herein expressed are solely on behalf of my office, as the Commissioner of Information. Based upon reports in the Stabroek News (S.N.) in recent days, I feel compelled to reject the impudence of the UNHRC Report as far as it purports to inflict upon my office some measure of inertia, lack of accountability and/or transparency. Paramount among my reasons is that neither this UNHRC nor anyone else sought my input before publishing any of its conclusions. My resentment is unqualified; moreso in the light of their sanctimonious condemnation of its qualitative, recorded responses to citizens’ enquiries and/or applications made to my Office.
I am persuaded that the UNHRC may be unfamiliar with the provisions of the Access to Information Act 2011, no less than the general public has proven to be, given my past/current experience in my interaction with them, inclusive of the efforts of my office to provide public lectures and media interviews. For the avoidance of any doubt, my Statutory Office, as judicially determined, is not a Department of Government of Guyana and is not accountable to Government, past or present. The reverse is more accurate as all Public Authorities are subject to my oversight. Subject only to Judicial Review, no Government official speaks on its behalf.
In more than half a century of professional experience, I am satisfied that decisions based upon less than unbiased due diligence, justice may be elusive as the public’s interest would be negatively impacted thereby. John Mair/Bill Cotton adequately captured the inefficacy of S.N. as an exemplar of media neutrality and purpose in their failure to interview the statesmen who visited recently. Reputedly Freudian in essence, “Heads I win, Tails you lose” reflects the meretricious leitmotif of this committee’s solipsism, reserved for unelected exogenous agencies of a tobacco-stick variety. How farcical is their practice of norms of democracy!
S.N., one of the bitter, quondam better journals, is fast gaining ground on Kaieteur News for comparable and unenviable yellow content, soon to be consigned to an environment of mediocrity, embraced mainly by the unlearned. Responsible agencies ought to know and do better, if they are to be taken seriously. The UNHRC Report has, to this extent, fallen short of this expectation.
Sincerely,
Justice Charles R. Ramson, S.C, O.R
Commissioner of Information
