FEARING that they may have lost the chairmanship and secretary of the newly constituted Region 10 Broadcasting Inc, directors mostly aligned to the PNCR broke up a meeting of the

Trust last week Friday after a vote on whether or not voting or balloting should be secret.
The first meeting convened, unfortunately ended abruptly and its aim to appoint the chairman and trust secretary was not achieved.

This mandate was given to the directors by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo on March 27 at a meeting held at the Ministry of the Presidency, where he engaged them on paving the way for establishment of the television station. Critical to this establishment was the appointment of the chairperson and trust secretary. This however was not done and various reasons were related by some of the directors who were present.

While Sharma Solomon, the trust’s acting secretary opted not to comment, Pastor Morris McKinnon, who was one of the original four directors before the board was expanded, expressed grave concern about what had transpired as he believes that the actions of some of the newly appointed directors do not reflect on them as having the best interest of the people of Linden at heart. McKinnon said that questions on the legality of the board were raised by some of the directors, which were coupled with the request made for Mr Phillip Bynoe, who was originally chosen by the Regional Democratic Council as the community’s representative to be removed and replaced by the Regional Vice-Chairman, Elroy Adolph.

This however could not have been done as requested, according to McKinnon, but though it did not rest well with some, this was not the cause of the meeting ending abruptly. “They rejected the proposal to have the elections done by secret ballot, and when it was voted on, the group that was in favour of secret balloting had the edge, and that is what caused the whole destruction, that is what caused them to decide to not proceed and that they were going to wait until the prime minister had another meeting and for clarity to be gained, that is where the meeting ended, on the secret ballot issue,” said the Director.

He then revealed that Mayor of Linden, Carwyn Holland; Regional Chairman, Renis Morian; Member of Parliament Jermaine Figueira and Deputy Director of Community Development Council Sandra Adams walked out of the meeting. Pastor McKinnon said that it is very disturbing as the TV Station is for the people’s development in every aspect. “What I want to say is that Mr Solomon has done a very good job in sticking with this thing, I don’t know what the major problem is, people perceive different things, like somebody can run away with the television station and control it like a personal thing which cannot happen, the legal documents are very clear that it is the people’s thing and the prime minister said that he is giving it back to the people.” The pastor added that the directors who opted to walk out are now using the excuse that Sharma Solomon did not furnish them with legal documentation of the board as the reason for not holding the elections.

Tardy
Meanwhile, MP Figueira in an invited comment on Tuesday, said that Solomon had given the commitment to furnish the directors with the Articles of Association, which gives guidance on how the trust must operate and he did not honour that commitment. “We believe that it would not have been prudent for us to make important decisions with respect to electing a chairman and secretary without prior knowledge with what the articles of Association speaks to…he was mandated to do that,” Figueira said. The MP revealed that Solomon was very tardy and did not have the documents in his possession.

“We did have the meeting, but it was unsuccessful, the purpose of the meeting was to have the elections…and we did not go ahead, we cannot make an important decision of that magnitude without the information, so we are saying provide us with the information so that we can have the opportunity to peruse the information so that we can make an informed decision on these two important positions.” When asked how Solomon had responded to this request, Figueira said that he skirted over the issue and did not give the directors a satisfactory answer.

Vladimir Glasgow, the Prime Minister’s Representative for Region 10, was elected as the Returning Officer for the elections after some hesitation was received from some of the directors. In commenting on what transpired, Glasgow echoing what Pastor McKinnon said, posited that the first hiccup came when some of the newly appointed board members requested that Mr Bynoe be removed as a director, but were told that such a decision had to be made by the board and not Regional Democratic Councillors. Subsequently, the majority voted for secret balloting, while the minority, including Regional Chairman Renis Morian, MP Figueira, CDC Deputy Director Sandra Adams and Mayor Carwyn Holland voted against.

“They weren’t in favour of it and they got up and walked out of the election because of the fact that they could not get the election to go in the direction that they wanted it to go by the show of hands and not secret ballot,” Vladimir said. “These people do not want to see progress in the region, these people do not have the people of Linden at heart and they don’t want to see Linden strive, they are only there for personal gains and benefits, Vladimir posited.

Consensus
At the meeting held with the directors on March 27 the prime minister mentioned that the government was eager to hand over the station, but it was the board that needed to ensure that they reached consensus on the trust company to manage the affairs of the television station.
He also pledged government’s support to upgrade and better outfit the facility after it is handed over.

Recently,the Guyana Chronicle solicited comments from a resident of Linden relative to the establishment of the television station and many expressed frustration and disappointment over the delay. “What I am saying is that they promise we this thing so long and we can’t get it up to now, there are so many things going on in Linden, people want to air their concerns and their views, not everybody get money to buy papers every day or read news online, and we need we television so that we can see what going on in we community at least three times a week, once a week is not good enough for Linden, we need our station,” a market vendor said.

The application for a television station was made after residents had complained about the limited and bias content that they were subjected to. The Government signed an agreement to grant the licence August 21st 2012 after a deadly protest which resulted in the death of three Lindeners.