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IT IS simply amazing that the Stabroek News, whose claimed commitment to journalistic objectivity and integrity could best be defined when assessing its general treatment of news and views pertaining to policies and programmes of the Guyana Government, could have so intellectually disgraced itself by an editorial yesterday under the headline: “The Amaila project and Parliament”. At the outset, let it be said that like the ‘Guyana Chronicle’, the ’Stabroek News’ is quite entitled to its editorial viewpoints and manner in reporting the news. This is basic to press freedom for a media enterprise, irrespective of ownership.
Nevertheless, what was quite surprising, even for the ‘Stabroek’ News, which so often gladly bares its inescapable prejudices, if not hostile positions against the PPP-led Government, is the option to present Monday’s editorial in the manner crafted:
It chose to deliberately blind itself to what the widely-represented and vital Private Sector Commission (PSC) has been saying about the arrogant positions adopted, prior to and since the joint APNU/AFC opposition vote in parliament to kill the most vital piece of legislation, as well as a related motion on the Amaila Falls Hydro-Electric Project.
Normally, this editorial stance could have been overlooked. But given the Stabroek’s determined preference for biased political regurgitations of problems encountered with a few significant national development projects, it is relevant to note the editorial’s failure to even allude to any of the key points that have been made by the Private Sector Commission.
Hence, the editorial could be objectively viewed as being deliberately biased—if not exactly a designed anti-government hatchet job.
Take, for instance, the PSC’s reminder in a press statement last Friday of a question that is most pertinent to why the parliamentary opposition voted down the bill and motion:
In expressing its latest disappointment with the behaviour of the two opposition parties with which it has been engaging in dialogue (as done also with the government) to promote cooperation for the hydro-power project to become a reality, the PSC recalled that the government had made available to the APNU and AFC representatives relevant project documents (including confidential information).
In its statement released to all sections of the media on Friday, the PSC explained that what it was “not sure of is the aspects of these documents that the (parliamentary) opposition is unhappy about, since those concerns are the best kept secret of the opposition as they have NOT (our emphasis) made those known to the government….”
Therefore, the PSC chose to publicly call on the opposition parties “to say (to the public) what are their concerns so that those can be addressed and, where necessary, clarified, again, by the government so that there can be some movement forward….”
Committed, as established, to be a goodwill negotiator to move the hydro-power project process forward, the PSC then felt obliged to add this very significant warning:
“Should the opposition continue with its ‘give us this’ and ‘we will give you that’ tactics (alluding evidently to political trade-offs), we will get what we got…a non-functioning nation”.
The implications of the PSC’s pertinent questions and relevant warning could not have escaped the author(s) of that Stabroek News editorial.
Has that newspaper, on its own, given any consideration to why the opposition parties continue to remain arrogantly silent in communicating with the Guyanese public on this matter of utmost national importance?
Why does the opposition remain publicly dumb in explaining the reason, or reasons for voting against the bill and motion in parliament last Thursday? Their actions have effectively put on hold the single most major development project in Guyana’s pre and post-independence history.
Now that the PSC, to its credit as a vital partner in Guyana’s economic and social development, have gone public with its concerns—after working feverishly in quiet initiatives with the government and opposition—perhaps the credited diplomatic representatives of foreign governments that are also among aid donors to Guyana may have an interest in sharing their own perspectives.
Nevertheless, what was quite surprising, even for the ‘Stabroek’ News, which so often gladly bares its inescapable prejudices, if not hostile positions against the PPP-led Government, is the option to present Monday’s editorial in the manner crafted:
It chose to deliberately blind itself to what the widely-represented and vital Private Sector Commission (PSC) has been saying about the arrogant positions adopted, prior to and since the joint APNU/AFC opposition vote in parliament to kill the most vital piece of legislation, as well as a related motion on the Amaila Falls Hydro-Electric Project.
Normally, this editorial stance could have been overlooked. But given the Stabroek’s determined preference for biased political regurgitations of problems encountered with a few significant national development projects, it is relevant to note the editorial’s failure to even allude to any of the key points that have been made by the Private Sector Commission.
Hence, the editorial could be objectively viewed as being deliberately biased—if not exactly a designed anti-government hatchet job.
Take, for instance, the PSC’s reminder in a press statement last Friday of a question that is most pertinent to why the parliamentary opposition voted down the bill and motion:
In expressing its latest disappointment with the behaviour of the two opposition parties with which it has been engaging in dialogue (as done also with the government) to promote cooperation for the hydro-power project to become a reality, the PSC recalled that the government had made available to the APNU and AFC representatives relevant project documents (including confidential information).
In its statement released to all sections of the media on Friday, the PSC explained that what it was “not sure of is the aspects of these documents that the (parliamentary) opposition is unhappy about, since those concerns are the best kept secret of the opposition as they have NOT (our emphasis) made those known to the government….”
Therefore, the PSC chose to publicly call on the opposition parties “to say (to the public) what are their concerns so that those can be addressed and, where necessary, clarified, again, by the government so that there can be some movement forward….”
Committed, as established, to be a goodwill negotiator to move the hydro-power project process forward, the PSC then felt obliged to add this very significant warning:
“Should the opposition continue with its ‘give us this’ and ‘we will give you that’ tactics (alluding evidently to political trade-offs), we will get what we got…a non-functioning nation”.
The implications of the PSC’s pertinent questions and relevant warning could not have escaped the author(s) of that Stabroek News editorial.
Has that newspaper, on its own, given any consideration to why the opposition parties continue to remain arrogantly silent in communicating with the Guyanese public on this matter of utmost national importance?
Why does the opposition remain publicly dumb in explaining the reason, or reasons for voting against the bill and motion in parliament last Thursday? Their actions have effectively put on hold the single most major development project in Guyana’s pre and post-independence history.
Now that the PSC, to its credit as a vital partner in Guyana’s economic and social development, have gone public with its concerns—after working feverishly in quiet initiatives with the government and opposition—perhaps the credited diplomatic representatives of foreign governments that are also among aid donors to Guyana may have an interest in sharing their own perspectives.
