MS. Isabelle Decaires of the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC), co-owner of the Stabroek News along with Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud, administers the Moray House Trust.
Moray House was the home of Mr. David DeCaires, who, along with another MCC figure, Miles Fitzpatrick, founded the Stabroek News (SN). After Mr. DeCaires’ death, the house on Quamina Street was turned into a place to hold strictly functions of the MCC elites, and host a weekly symposium on topics in Guyana.

Ms. DeCaires, who is of UK extraction and lives in the UK, has strong anti-government views on politics in Guyana. I would classify her politics as MCC narratives that are not favourable to the PPP and the PPP-led government.

As I have written several times since the March 2020 elections, Ms. DeCaires has not featured in her symposium curriculum, the caricatured rejection of the legal no-confidence vote in December 2018, and the five months of attempted rigging from March to July 2020.

Through the initiative of Ms. DeCaires, Dr. Alissa Trotz, another MCC personality who lives in Canada, started a weekly column in SN named, “In The Diaspora (ITD)”.
Now what ITD does is that it offers different Guyanese Diaspora persons to write the column. Since its birth, more than 10 years ago, ITD has not invited an independent academic, or someone whose views tend to be sympathetic to the Government of Guyana to do an analysis.

All the contributors the past 10 years come within the mode of anti-government critics, with some shocking, vulgar denunciations of the government. In one instance, D. Percy Hintzen (who has been living in the US) proclaimed in ITD that he is proud to be a Creole. He says his being is based on his Creole existence.

He remains, to date, the only member of the MCC to publicly declare he is comfortable, at the psychic level, being a Creole in the Guyanese context. Please Google my column on Hintzen for Friday, January 27, 2023, titled, “Sigmund Freud: Returning to class and colour one year after”.

Last Saturday, Ms. DeCaires held a symposium on changing the capital of Guyana from Georgetown. As you would have guessed, no one from the government was on the panel.
As I read the announcement about the symposium from Moray House (it was done by Zoom; Ms. DeCaires does not live in Guyana), my mind immediately went to the report of the Commission of Enquiry into the March 2020 election.

Why would Ms. DeCaires not host a symposium on the report? It makes for disturbing reason, especially the section on the conduct of the Police Force. Since the report was made public, Dr. Trotz has not touched it either.

I guess you and I know why Ms. Decaires and Dr. Trotz have this attitude. But since Ms. DeCaires writes trenchantly against the government, I think, as both an opinion-maker and the co-owner of the SN, she needs to be accountable, and answer some questions that the public would no doubt be interested in. Here are four:

1: In her paper of November 13, 2022, she signed a letter asking for the immediate stoppage of oil production. She said greenhouse gas harms civilisation which began in Africa. My question is: What was the relevance of mentioning where civilisation began?

2: In that letter, she stated that greenhouse gas kills people in Africa. Now, my limited knowledge of ecology tells me that greenhouse emissions kill people in general. Why the mention of African people only?

3: After the Natural Resource Fund legislation was completed, Ms. DeCaires, disagreeing on the nature of the legislation, referred to Guyana as a dysfunctional democracy. Can Ms. DeCaires tell us if she is willing to apply the same paradigm to her country, the UK? Mr. Rishi Sunak was not made Prime Minister in an election by his parliamentary party, general membership of his party, or the electorate of his country.

My question is: Should there not have been an open election by the Conservative Party and let who wants to compete be allowed to do so? I would think you call such a process, “functioning democracy”.

4: One of the Board Members of the SN, Mr. Timothy Jonas, told this columnist that he cannot recall the names of the Board Members except its editor. I called Mr. Persaud, and he refused to offer me any information. My question is: Does Ms. DeCaires believe that the public is entitled to such information about a newspaper? I stress the difference between a commercial company and a newspaper, because the latter seeks accountability and information from the State, so the public can be better informed. Should not the same standard apply to the media?