PLEASE allow me to respond to an analysis on 12-19-2011 in the Stabroek News (SN), titled: “The spin doctor keeps his place”.
These quotes below, hopefully, not SN’s new agenda, create unease, hinting of future approaches regarding an interpretation about the 2011 mandate and their new role hereafter. Perhaps this analysis is just an individual’s opinion and does not reflect SN’s official position. Who knows? But it is understandable why it may create an impression (unjustified?) that SN has seemingly become a kind of superimposed substitute interlocutory for Guyanese regardless of how they voted. SN’s reassurance and clarification will be most welcome.

Why this sudden SN unhappiness with President Ramotar’s retention of Dr Roger Luncheon? There seems to be delight in noting (1) “the funny thing is that …  Doctor (Luncheon) has now become too old and too predictable to fool anybody anymore (and) he continues to trundle away, bowling the same line and length and being met with broad bats and dour defences. It doesn’t help.” So help “who”, if one may be bold to ask?

What does SN find so grievous about Dr Luncheon’s performance to seek his demolition and justify writing, that (2) “perhaps it will take the media to force President Ramotar’s hand.” Force! against an old man?

One cannot accuse SN of being unclear when they affirm that (3)”the media are the batting side and it is they who must decide just how to deal with Luncheon.”

Really SN? That would make SN prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner! What input in our fledgling democracy, if any, does the Guyanese public contribute in this public trial or match?  Drunk sporting spectators in the stand, uncaring citizens or managers of “their” team? In which game anywhere, perchance does the batsman select his bowler, umpire or wicketkeeper?

Mr A. Rodrigues of Canada writing in SN on 12-19-2011 and titled: “A sign of what is to come” mirrors all Guyana’s relief that “in  a few days to Christmas President Donald (Ramotar) brought to us… suspension and investigation of Henry (Greene), charges against Kwame (McCoy) while (Odinga) Lumumba‘s fate is to be decided. If this is a sign of what is to come, then surely Guyana is on the path to finally receiving justice and fairness…”.

Mr. Rodrigues further commends and encourages President Ramotar that “this is good batting so far, excellent shots even though there were bad balls begging to be hit. Remember the hallmark of a good batsman is that he ‘destroys bad balls without mercy’. So continue batting; the bowling is mediocre, there are many bad balls and how you dispatch them will be the ultimate test of how good you are.”
So who is actually batting? With both Mr. Rodrigues touting President Ramotar as batting and with SN now claiming to be also batting, per chance they are on the same team on either wicket? Or does SN feel we are witnessing two different games and matches and hence in two different worlds?
Why would SN want to divide us now more than ever? The media has tremendous responsibilities for stability, debate and development as you well know. And SN has a healthy reputation for exemplifying the free press.

Few can fail to note the significant departure, as Mr Rodrigues has pointed out, in President Ramotar’s style. In retaining the experienced Dr Luncheon as his right hand man one must acknowledge that the good doctor is perhaps the most powerful man in Guyana apart from the President and his astuteness may now be guiding the new President.

Dr Luncheon to his credit has even managed to retain the confidence of all Guyana’s last three Presidents. A sterling achievement indeed with no parallel. Who can deny Dr Luncheon’s incorruptibility, humility, modesty, simplicity, down to earth unassuming personality and approachability… all refreshing desirable qualities which mirror similar characteristics of the late Jagans.

How significantly different is President Ramotar’s modus operandi from Dr Luncheon to recommend his termination? Without any doubt Dr Luncheon’s authenticity as a statesman and PPP stalwart remain unblemished and undisputed.
All have been aware of Dr Luncheon’s responsibilities and performance the last 20 years and few have had cause to find fault with him to seek his head. Why now?
Is SN unable to reconcile the truth about the illegality of APNU’s protest march and “what Dr. Luncheon is actually saying (in) that the decision to use the rubber bullets had nothing to do with the orderliness or otherwise of the protesters during that particular demonstration but was taken “in the context of the type of protest actions that occurred before”?

Public safety rests absolutely with the police and the government of the day, not the media. The media can indeed condone breaking of the law and is free to say so but that would still make it illegal regardless. Any government is subjected to censure in a democracy, same for the media. But the irresponsible media cannot be electorally removed in any democracy. How must they be held accountable and be censured when they err in Guyana’s present fragile democracy?

This stabbing of an enfeebled Dr Luncheon is akin to the stabbing of Shakespeare’s old unarmed Julius Caesar by a bunch of able bodied men all with sharp daggers.

SN does not ennoble its publication by its analysis or convincingly justifies seeking his blood. SN’s analysis actually rivals Shakespeare’s Shylock who croons “if I can once catch him on the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him….cursed be my (media?) tribe if I forgive him.”

All very ignoble when SN itself pointed out that “the Doctor has now become too old and too predictable to fool anybody anymore”.  The possibility exists that the “old fool” may be replaced by a young brash con. And it could very well be…well you know…God have mercy. This cannot be what SN seeks for us.

Suggesting that Dr Luncheon gets a full time assistant (Ms Gail Texiera or Mr Navin Chandarpal or whomever) shows SN as more compassionate. Then when time takes its course, Dr Luncheon will bring relief to himself and others.

SN should not be associated with condoning an illegal march or beating up an old man who fools no one. Guyana needs all its experienced statesmen for these sensitive times.