HAVING waited for the opportunity to register my commentary on the relentless proliferation of innuendos of government’s improvidence by the Kaieteur News in recent weeks, I am confident that my concise response will have profound significance.

My response is occasioned by an article titled: ‘Contractor refutes Kaieteur News charges on Stanleytown pump’, published in the Guyana Chronicle dated September 2. In his article, contractor Harrychand Tulsi provided statistics to vindicate the cost of the project. I use the word ‘project’ where the Kaieteur News repeatedly used ‘Stanleytown Pump & Engine’ because the total contract cost envelops far more than those two items. The pump and engine must be transported from the place of procurement to the place of installation; they must be installed with other mechanisms and by technical human resources; the assembled, ready-to-operate machinery must be housed; the housing must be founded upon a plot of land; the land must be prepared in a way to withstand the pressures that will be exerted by the machinery in operation, among other things I, being devoid of sound engineering knowledge, may not be able to cite. The point I am making here simply is that there are a number of components which must constitute the whole. The ‘pump and engine’ Kaieteur News points to discriminately, do not operate in a vacuum; they cannot operate in isolation of other components.

Not that I am eager to educate Kaieteur News, but those are the variables that must be taken into account. But should it come across as a lesson on how critical, robust investigation should be conducted, it is purely subconscious on my part, and I hope Kaieteur News will take it in good stride.

To scrutinise governmental projects with the interest of ensuring value for taxpayers’ dollars is unequivocally one of the critical roles of the media. However, when the results put in the public domain represent a lack of critical analysis based on authentic information, the reading public is done a grave disservice. Investigative journalism would provide findings that are empirical and irrefutable.

Certainly, the fact that Kaieteur News has been able to publish highly contentious articles and photographs with impunity is evidence of an abundance of freedom of expression, and by extension, democracy in Guyana. However, the baseless, erroneous, mischievous claims of this newspaper have already begun and will continue to nullify its credibility. There are people who read the Kaieteur News only because they know that it has become notorious for sensationalising realities. There seems to be a deliberate attempt by the publication to cast aspersions and create doubts in the minds of readers as it relates to what the Government is doing. But the very impressions Kaieteur News hopes to indelibly etch in the minds of readers will be deconstructed by the indisputable truth. The sins of Kaieteur News will find it out. Kaieteur News will destroy itself in its bid to brainwash the public and advance its mercantile agenda – to maintain high sales, fulfilling its insatiable quest for circulation.
GUY SCHOLARI