The CLICO issue…
THE following is a statement issued by the Government in response to reports carried in the Friday September 17 and Saturday September 18, 2010 issues of the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News respectively regarding its announcement of plans to bring closure to the CLICO saga. The Government of Guyana has noted the editorial carried in Kaieteur News (September 17) and the PNCR statement, also made on the same day and carried in today’s (September 18) Stabroek News following Thursday’s announcement by President Jagdeo of the administration’s plans for bringing the CLICO matter to closure.
The editorial in question is very illustrative of KN’s true colours, as is the PNCR statement. Indeed, the striking consistency between these two political missives provides some amount of corroboration of the suggestion previously made that KN has replaced the now defunct New Nation as the new newspaper of the PNCR.
First of all, Kaieteur News’ editorial and the PNCR statement have one common feature, in that they both reveal the priorities of that newspaper and its political sponsors. Specifically, they treat as a passing irrelevance the relief that will be brought to the thousands of CLICO policyholders who will recover the value of their policies as result of the plan unveiled by the Government. That relief, and the concerns of the thousands of small policyholders, are cast aside as unworthy of mention. Instead, for KN and the PNCR, their preoccupation is with how one man was treated at the meeting.
That man, incidentally, is Christopher Ram, an acknowledged Opposition political activist, a self-confessed co-author of the last PNCR political manifesto, and a man who played an instrumental role in frustrating a previous application to liquidate a financial institution in distress, as a result of which thousands of depositors on that occasions were unable to recover their deposits. This same man is currently before the courts for the role he played in the liquidation of Tower Hotel Ltd. Small wonder, therefore, that the CLICO policyholders themselves audibly rejected Ram’s attempt at interjection and his departure from the meeting.
Nevertheless, in the world of the PNCR, Ram is more important than the thousands of policyholders. Why is this so? Simple. Because he is one of their tiny cabal of quasi-intellectual mouthpieces, just as KN is their mouthpiece in the print media.
Secondly, both KN and PNCR are apparently unembarrassed by their obvious double standards. They both speak of standards expected of public offices. But they make no references about standards expected of persons who wish to be perceived as objective political commentators. Ram has routinely insulted persons in public office and persons perceived to the close to this administration, insinuated all manner of misconduct, used all manner of innuendoes to impute political misconduct, and expects get away with it. Most recently, Ram in his letter carried in SN last Thursday insinuated that there was political direction in determining who was able to surrender their policies before judicial management commenced at Clico, a classic innuendo designed to create suspicion. Has Ram been held accountable for these statements? Has he been called upon to desist from making these statements unless he has some proof? No. Apparently, he has licence to say whatever he pleases, as long as it is offensive to this Government.
What is worse, Ram is understood to have made all manner of insulting statements to the media about his Excellency the President after the audience applauded his departure from the Cultural Centre. While one can understand the hurt and humiliation he would have felt by the public’s rejection and ridicule of him, that by no means provides him with an excuse for less than decorous behaviour. Worse yet, disrespectful behaviour towards our Head of State? Is he exempt from the KN and PNCR standards of good conduct? Did he come in for any criticism from them? Once again, in the world of the PNCR and KN, the obligation of good behaviour only applies to those in Government. All others in their cabal are exempt from the requirement of good behaviour.