Dear Editor,
THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) notes the continued trend of the online news outlet, Newsroom, part of the E-Networks group of companies, whereby its publications advance an agenda that aligns with that of the APNU+AFC Coalition Government.

While the PPP accepts that it is the prerogative of news agencies to determine their own editorial policies, what is unacceptable is the distortion of comments made by PPP officials – most recently, the distortion of comments made by PPP General Secretary and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, during his weekly news conference on Thursday, August 23, 2018.

The article published under the headline “Homestead for Venezuelans could be dangerous – Jagdeo” on Friday, August 24, 2018, completely misrepresents the comments made by the PPP General Secretary and Opposition Leader. The article uses select comments, out of context, to support a misleading headline. The party wishes to point out that a detailed position was outlined after questions on the subject of Venezuelans, including persons of Guyanese heritage living in Venezuela, crossing the border into Guyana, were raised by the Newsroom reporter present at the news conference.

In response, the PPP General Secretary and Opposition Leader explained that for four months now there have been calls on the APNU+AFC Government to change the manner in which it is dealing with the situation – from handing the issue primarily over to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to a more humanitarian approach. This fact juxtaposed with the report from the Newsroom – which stated that “The coalition administration has adopted a humanitarian approach to the issue and instead of deporting the refugees, they have been providing assistance in the form of clothing, food, and shelter” – more so, the use of the word “deported” is a misrepresentation of the party’s position on the issue, when in fact the party has been at the forefront of calling for more to be done from a humanitarian perspective.

The Opposition Leader, at his news conference said: “Sometime back I spoke about this larger threat to Guyana and that the Government was reticent to give us information, and to share with the people of Guyana information on the exact nature of this threat. After I had been mentioning this for several months, almost two months, President Granger then announced that the army will give a briefing to some of our members of Parliament…that took place…I was briefed about the briefing….when I met President Granger, just recently, I raised the matter again and said that we are concerned about the approach to this matter. It is not purely a military matter….we believe that the government has been approaching this from the perspective of a military threat; that is why they got the army to do a briefing, rather than have the [Ministry of] Foreign Affairs to do a briefing of the MPs.
“We pointed out [to the APNU+AFC Government] that the PPP won Regions One and Nine, the two bordering regions through which most of the refugees are coming and that we would like to see a differentiated policy. There are three types of refugees, well not refugees, but individuals who will come through the borders into Guyana.

“First of all, Guyanese who live in Venezuela. When I say Guyanese, if they have a tiny drop of Guyanese blood, they are our own people; so whether they have documents or not, once they can prove that their parents or grandparents or anyone else, a member of the family, are Guyanese, then they should be welcomed and allowed to be integrated and supporting documents should be given to them.

“Secondly, you have the Amerindians who tend to move across borders seamlessly without passports. These are the Warraus and others. I saw them in the villages and in the rivers, travelling from Mabaruma to Port Kaituma. These persons must be helped from a humanitarian basis immediately. They tend to not have documents. From time immemorial, they have travelled across the border. So that is the second category.

“The third category is the Venezuelans who are leaving the country. We have an obligation to treat them fairly and in a humanitarian way, but in the long term they will be repatriated to Venezuela, given the nature of the threat on the border and a settlement on the border, with permanent residents from Venezuela – a settlement of that nature can pose a threat to our territorial integrity and arguments in the future.

“So these are the three categories of people, we believe, will come across the border and we want a different approach to each. I spoke with the President about this…we have to pay greater attention to these things.”

Even after this detailed response the Newsroom reporter continued questioning about the government’s announcement that a homestead will be established in Region One, to respond to the influx of persons crossing the border from Venezuela. In response, the PPP general secretary and opposition leader, said: “I don’t know what the thinking is [with the development of the homestead]. I hope that it is just a place that people can receive the generosity of Guyana and be treated in a dignified manner to be repatriated at some point in time.”

Considering the full context of his comments, the PPP rejects the distortion peddled by the Newsroom. This is the latest such act on part of this online news agency.

Only on Thursday (August 23, 2018), the Newsroom published another distortion under the headline “Jagdeo wanted to meet with US Congressmen” – an article that: 1) implied that the opposition leader was somehow “miffed” about not meeting with the foreign officials – when his focus, relative to this issue, was on the concerns about Minister Raphael Trotman being the “interlocutor” for the meeting between the officials from the United States of America (USA) and local government officials and about the secrecy with which the meeting was treated; and 2) incorrectly reported that “Jagdeo could not expand on possible ways the talks between government officials and the US Congressmen could produce negative results” – when in fact the opposition leader made it clear that he would not speculate on the issue. It was after his comments on the issue, and in response to a question from the Newsroom reporter about a willingness to engage the USA officials, that the Opposition Leader said: “If they had requested a meeting I would have met with the Congressmen.”

Regards,
People’s Progressive Party