MENTION is made of the letter: “Why these propagandists will not succeed”, in the Kaieteur News of March 15, 2011. This letter, authored by one, Asquith Rose, mentioned among other things, the PPP’s “propagandists” resurrection of Burnham’s policies and the PNC administration’s politics, dispelling them as lies. First of all, I am compelled to remind Asquith Rose that the word propaganda refers to totally and completely proliferating a doctrine or cause, or providing information that supports and reproduces the views and interests of the advocates of that doctrine or cause.

According to Pratkanis and Aronson, propaganda “is the communication of a point of view with the ultimate goal of having the recipient of the appeal come to “voluntarily” accept this position as if it were his or her own”.

This term is also used to describe material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause. It does not refer to a lie or lies, hence, propagandists are not necessarily liars, and both sides of the political playground, the government and opposition, exercise propaganda.

Propaganda and politics go hand in hand. As a matter of fact, they are fruits of the same tree, democracy, and one is seldom seen without the other, as it is a means of reaching out to the people to garner their support and votes, a requisite for any democratically elected government. This is just a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. Judging from the letter, it is clear that Asquith Rose is as much a propagandist as those he mentioned in his letter. From the Burnham government, to the Hoyte government, to the Jagdeo government, propagandism was used to reach the people. 

But Asquith seems incredibly upset about the PNC’s past deeds being represented to Guyanese. This, it seems, makes him rather uneasy. He calls them lies, but the very real fact that that party plunged Guyana into a $2.1 Billion debt with no means of financial viability to repay that debt, and left the country in economic shambles, is no lie. It is also no lie that the National Security Act which automatically presumed Guyanese guilty until such a time that they could prove their innocence, and allowed them to be detained for indefinite periods without cause or bail ultimately halted democracy in this country.
Resurfacing the truth about the PNC’s history does not make anyone a liar. The truth must be made known to all Guyanese.
Rose, in his so called defence of democracy, also unwisely condemned these ‘government propagandists’ use of the other two daily private newspapers to disseminate their information. Well, for most Guyanese, this is a reflection of democracy in process, as people have the right to send their letters to whichever news media they choose; as have the newspapers the right to decide whether to carry or to reject that person’s letter. The Guyana Chronicle is not the only daily newspaper  which circulates in Guyana.