Guyana - 16 years on

The Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
There are things about this government that cannot be defended

Whoever wrote yesterday’s Peeping Tom has much more to learn about the destructive influence of power over politicians who possess it and how that destruction has caused people throughout the world to distrust those with power.

There may be several reasons why Barack Obama has jumped ahead of Mrs. Clinton in their bid to get their party’s nomination in the current American presidential race. But one factor stands out conspicuously. Because Mrs. Clinton had had a taste of power for eight years as the First Lady, there tends to be more trust placed in the newcomer. If Obama wins the presidency of the US it will be for that particular reason. In the US right now the mood is to give the newcomer a chance.

Peeping Tom makes the point that the PPP has not got intellectual talent that is needed to confront my columns. That is wrong. A government can get any intellectual muscle it wants once it is willing to pay for it. This government is so starved of good PR (public relations) people that it will pay for them just as they have purchased the service of top class New York lawyers for the Law of the Sea dispute with Suriname.

The Guyana Government will get any talent it wants in engineering, education, science etc. What it finds difficult to attract is political consultants. There are plenty of them in Guyana and in the Diaspora but they are not going to defend the sixteen-year rule of the PPP without structural damage to their scholarly credibility.

Peeping Tom informed us that the government has employed people who ought to reply to my columns but they are too “pampered” (his word). Again he is wrong. It is not that they are pampered it is that they are not stupid. They know they will come in for enormous criticism from any part of the world where you find people that know what is taking place in Guyana.
What these “pampered” ones do is either they speak on broad subjects that are not controversial or they spin using pen names or they just stay clear of any defence of the PPP Government.
Take Rickey Singh. He is a paid columnist with the Sunday Chronicle. Read Mr. Singh’s columns since the 2001 elections. There is absolutely no defence of the many issues that the Office of the President would like a helping hand on. Mr. Singh carefully avoids coming to the rescue of the Government on any contentious challenge or topical controversy. Most of his pieces are on regional subjects. Mr. Singh is essentially a supporter of the PPP Government in Guyana. But his weekly commentaries in the Sunday Chronicle are not along the line of embrace.

Where are the intellectuals at UG that spin for the PPP? Maybe they are spinning but they are not doing it under their real names. These people know that the ocean of mistakes, arrogant decisions and power-obsession have led to a damaged image that cannot be defended by the most erudite pen.

One would not like to be in the shoes of any intellectual that becomes a consistent spokesperson for the policies of the Guyana Government. David Dabydeen is not going to do it. Dr. Randy Persaud is not willing to come forward.

This is a crucial mistake that Peeing Tom made yesterday. The point is not a lack of scholarly talent in the Government but the unwillingness of that talent to publicly proclaim its support for the mountains of failed policies. But a crucial dimension is missing here that needs to be filled. Some of the errors of the Guyana Government the rulers themselves cannot defend so they maintain a wall of silence.

Let us take two cases where the leaders of government themselves do not want to attempt an explanation on behalf of their own mandarins. First, there is Karan Singh, of GWI. Both independent dailies have published news items that conveyed the impression that two international lending agencies were not comfortable working with Mr. Karan Singh when he was Chief Executive Officer of what was then GUYWA and is now known as GWI.

To date we do not know what the dividing lines were, if any. Is it possible that Mr.Singh was in the right? The identical thing happened with Minister Nawbatt when he was in charge of SIMAP. Maybe Minister Nawbatt was in the right over a policy with the lending agencies. But all types of perceptions have been born because there has been no public declaration on behalf of the two men.

Or is it possible that these two situations cannot have a successful PR defence? We do not have the facts on Singh and Nawbatt but we do on several other issues. Which intellectual is going to stand up and support the PPP’s rejection of a Freedom of Information Act? Dr. Prem Misir is not going to do it; Dr. James Rose is not going to do it; Dr. Randy Persaud is not going to do it; Rickey Singh is not going to do it; David Dabydeen is not going to do it.

How can any intellectual who cares about his/her image tell their colleagues that Guyana does not need a Freedom of Information Act? That is like arguing against having a court of law; it is like arguing against the right to appeal from a lower court; it is like saying a country does not need a human rights body.

The Freedom of Information Act has become an essential component of modern democracy. The ruling party has frowned upon the AFC’s Raphael Trotman’s introduction of such legislation. Before Trotman’s initiative, the PPP was and perhaps still is contemptuous of such a law in Guyana.

Which intellectual is going to put his credibility on the line when for sixteen years in office, the PPP has been unable to get the electricity situation under control. How do you support a government that after sixteen years in power cannot guarantee the free flow of water to its citizens in the capital city?

How do you justify the performance of the Guyana Government when from 1997 to 2005, the country endured zero economic growth? What kind of PR spin are you going to put on the international statistics that show Guyana is at the lower rung of the ladder in CARICOM in almost all the indices – migration, corruption, investment encouragement, success in fighting the narco-trade, in unsolved crimes?

There can be no question about it that if there is a new leadership in this country with vision, care and humanism and we seem to be onto a bright future, thousands and thousands of Guyanese intellectuals in and out the country will rush to contribute to the progress that waits on the horizon.

For now, it is virtually impossible to speak on behalf of this government which lost its way a long time ago.

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