CHARACTER assassination as an alternative to professional journalism has become the stock in trade of Adam Harris, so I should have expected nothing less in his response to my letter which sought only to differ with him on a matter of his unprofessional conduct as a journalist.
Adam in his response, however, reveals himself. For him and, indeed, the newspaper which pays him, to be its Editor-in-Chief, defines everything and every issue, whether of national consequence or not, in political terms. It’s either pro-PPP Government or

anti-PPP Government, pro-Opposition or anti-Opposition.
He labels me ‘political grasshopper’ for professionally consulting with a government agency on behalf  of a national development project embraced by a PPP Government when as a politician I was a critic of the PPP Government.
I ended my political career in 1981when I resigned from the PNC Cabinet. I much later worked as a professional head with the Hoyte administration as Chairman of the Guyana Public Communications Agency (GPCA).
I established my own Public Communications Consulting Company in 1992. I am not and have not been a member of a political party for over 32 years. I hold no allegiance nor profess any. I work as a professional.

In fact, as a board member of the Private Sector Commission, I have spoken out publicly in criticism of the Government’s failure to appoint the Public Procurement Commission, the Integrity Commission, the appointment of an Ombudsman and on other matters of transparency and good governance and I have been critical of the Opposition in delaying the money laundering legislation.
I am paid and earn my living as a public communications consultant both in and out of Guyana and I have never once represented a professional conflict of interest.
For me it matters not whether the product, company or issue I am engaged to represent happens to be supported by one or the other of our political parties in or out of office.
I am governed by only one rule. It is that I believe in the merits of the subject I am engaged to represent and, if it is a national issue, I believe it to be good for Guyana.
I tell every client that concealing the truth is not an option, that misrepresenting the facts is also not an option. My job is to help the client provide as much information to the public as possible in a coherent, convincing, understandable and transparent manner.

Yes, I am paid for my services, so, too, is Mr. Harris. I do, however, work for and seek to advance many national causes without monetary award which I believe to be in the interest of our country, regardless of which political party is the beneficiary.
Adam Harris, on the other hand is bound, as a journalist to respect and adhere to an established Code of Conduct which requires of him to report in a fair, balanced, unbiased and truthful manner. But sadly, in my opinion, so long as he reports everything and on every issue in black and white political terms, he betrays all pretence as a professional journalist.
Adam, incidentally, complains that at the press conference I defined him as a Kaieteur News reporter while claiming that he was there as Editor –in-Chief of Prime News. I wonder if he recognises the conflict of interest he represents by being neither ‘fish nor fowl’. I recognise Prime News as a wholly independent news organisation from Kaieteur News, but at the Press Conference Adam sought to represent the interests of Kaieteur News.
As for being ‘God’ when serving as a moderator, Adam knows that that is nonsense. If a news organisation packs a press conference with its representatives, it leaves the moderator little option but to continuously recognise them at the expense of others, or, be accused, as I was, by the Kaieteur News, of limiting their questions.
Adam has also become the master of invention. He says I left the room to remind Stabroek News, who was not present prior to the press conference starting, about the press conference and then invents that Stabroek News told me ‘something dirty’ because no reporter turned up.
In fact I did not speak with Stabroek News but spoke with the person who organised the press conference.
In responding to me, Adam, sadly has chosen to descend into the gutter. Exactly as I accused him, he uses ‘dem boys seh’ to indulge in what is supposed to be satire to libel me. He has the gall to publish that the Government has given me a new 4×4. My company, in fact, purchased a new pickup, not a 4×4, well before my services were engaged for the Marriott project and my fee amounts to a fraction of the price of the pickup.
As I first observed, the press conference on the Marriott is being broadcast unedited in full. I leave the public to judge the merits or otherwise of Guyana having a Marriott Hotel.
I saw many years ago  when Trinidad & Tobago had no tourists what the Hilton Hotel, financed by the Government, did for the country’s economic and tourism development. Now, much more recently, the Hyatt Regency, again financed by the government, is doing both in terms of advancing tourism and business development. We see it also in Barbados, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. We will see the same in Guyana.
I know who I am. Adam Harris can decide who he wants to be, a politician posing as a journalist or a professional working as a journalist.
I will have nothing more to say on this matter.