Setting the record straight on Linden television

ON July 18, 2012 three men died in Linden as part of a struggle. Ron Sommerset, Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis were ruthlessly gunned down as they protested peacefully against a move by the former PPP government to cause an increase in electricity rates in the mining town.

In the face of the highly mobilized and unrelenting five-week resistance, the then PPP government was forced into submission and to sign an agreement with the people of the town to restore order, equity and deliver justice.

One of the key features of this agreement is the return of the television operation in Linden to the community. The people of Linden, in 1980 were gifted a television station by Green Construction Company, it remained in their possession and under their management until 1993. After the PPP government came to power, the people of Linden considered that the television station was seized and remained under state control. In the 10 years prior to 2015 the people of Linden grew disenchanted by the patently biased programming they were fed by what had been, by this time, operating as NCN Channel 13. There was a steady diet of rabid pro-government propaganda while the views of the opposition and the community itself were minimized and shut out.

During the 2015 election campaign, the Coalition Government made a commitment to the people of Linden that it will deliver on the agreement and ensure that the television station is returned to the community for their full ownership, management and control.

In good faith this process had been initiated by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in 2015 with the Region 10 Broadcasting Inc (RTBI), a company which was set up by former Region 10 Regional Chairman Mr. Sharma Solomon. However, following the 2015 national and regional elections, Mr. Solomon ceased to be Regional Chairman and he was replaced by Mr. Renis Morian.

The other directors of the RTBI were Ms. Sandra Van Tull, Mr. Morris McKinnon, Ms. Gloria Britton and the now deceased Mr. Haslyn Parris.

While discussions were being had with Mr. Solomon, Prime Minister Nagamootoo received a letter from the Region 10 RDC stating the Council’s concerns about the handing over of the television station to RTBI and the representation on RTBI’s board. The RDC was ostensibly concerned that, (i) it as the duly elected regional governing body had no representation on the RTBI board and (ii) the RBTI board lacked wide representation from the various stakeholders and representative bodies in Linden.

On March 15, 2016, Prime Minister Nagamootoo convened a meeting at Watooka House in Linden with all the stakeholders in an effort to find consensus on the issue. The meeting was reported as a “packed stakeholder consultation” which indeed it was and there was a frank expression of views on the concerns by the RDC, the Region 10 Members of Parliament, the then Interim Management Committee of the Mayor and Town Council, labour union and chamber of commerce representatives and other stakeholders.

It was agreed at that meeting that the stakeholders would hold a follow-up meeting and further deliberate on the points of contention, find agreement and report to the Prime Minister. No follow-up meeting was ever held.

Growing impatient after several months of inaction by the stakeholders and their seeming intransigence, Prime Minister Nagamootoo then convened a second meeting at the Ministry of the Presidency on June 22nd, 2016. At this meeting Prime Minister Nagamootoo reiterated government and his own personal commitment to the stakeholders to bring the issue to a conclusion and to hand over the television station to the community. He outlined his and the government’s anxiety to conclude the issue.

It was agreed at this second meeting that the Board of Directors of RTBI would be expanded from the original four (Mr. Solomon, Ms. Van Tull, Mr. McKinnon and Ms. Britton) to 15 with representation from the RDC, the Mayor and Town Council, the Kwakwani Neighbourhood Democratic Council, the trade unions and the chamber of commerce among other stakeholders. Mr. Solomon duly committed to arranging for a board meeting of RTBI to be held and for the agreed actions to be taken and for the company’s attorney to be instructed accordingly and the expansion effected.

Nine months elapsed. At a third meeting convened by Prime Minister Nagamootoo on Monday of this week, March 27th, 2017, again at the Ministry of the Presidency, Mr. Solomon verbally reported to the meeting that the RBTI board had been expanded to 15 as agreed at the June meeting.

Significant gains were made on Monday as the newly appointed RBTI directors present agreed to hold the first meeting of the expanded RBTI Board at 5pm on Friday March 31st at Watooka House at which the Board will appoint the Chairperson and company secretary. Following this process it is anticipated that an urgent date will be set for the formal handing over of the television station to Linden.

Prime Minister Nagamootoo has been exceedingly patient in this entire process. At no point was there any hesitation, rethink or reluctance to deliver on the commitment of the Coalition Government to return Linden television to its rightful owners.

It was the RDC, the duly elected and rightful regional governing body of the region which expressed concerns to the Prime Minister about the process. For the Prime Minister to have ignored the RDC and other stakeholders’ concerns, including the Mayor and Town Council, the region’s Members of Parliament and others and organize for the handing over to Linden television to RTBI would have opened him and the Coalition Government to justifiable accusations of irresponsibility, ignoring the concerns of elected officials and the representatives of the people and acting in haste and with impertinence.

I am witness to the fact that Prime Minister Nagamootoo does not take lightly that three men died, and a difficult struggle of blood and tears was undertaken, in part, for the return of Linden television to the people of the town. Prime Minister Nagamootoo has been charged by the Coalition Government with overseeing the process of returning the television station to the people of Linden. It is his and the government’s desire to conclude this long overdue process soonest. Since March 2016, to date, it has been the stakeholders of Linden who have caused the process to be intractably stalled as a result of being unable to find common ground.

It is hoped, that come Friday, March 31st this problematic hurdle will be overcome and the process will move forward and be concluded. Despite propaganda and misinformation, the ball has always been and remains in the court of the Linden stakeholders. People died for this, the stakeholders of Linden must not betray the legacy of the Linden martyrs by being intransigent.

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