Ministers are politicians who must defend themselves    

LAST week I wrote that I know of no country where ruling politicians are not involved in confronting their critics. It is commonsense that they do so because when elections come around, voters will judge what type of people they are. I know of no country where politicians at their press conferences or on meet-the-people tours do not respond to media reports that are crassly unfair and condemnations from organisations that are not factual.

This is quite normal in the world therefore, it is stupid for the Stabroek News (SN) to keep chastising Cabinet Ministers for their response to civil society actors and privately owned newspapers who are hostile to the government. I find it irritating that you can read in the editorials of SN the paper’s vexations with the government responses to civil society groups that sprout some of the most appalling nonsense you may not find in another country.

The TUC General Secretary, Mr. Lincoln Lewis, demanded that the State drop the charges against a teenager accused of setting a dormitory of fire in which 20 persons lost their lives. The group Red Thread, among others, wants the state to substitute a charge of arson and not the 20 murder charges. Where in the world you would find such asininity from national organisations? And why is the government out of order to respond to such atrocious thinking? Why must the government not speak to the population about the unfair things its detractors say about it?
The anonymous columnist, Peeping Tom, has tried to outdo the SN’s absurdities. Writing recently, the writer concluded that the weekly press conferences by the General-Secretary of the ruling party, Bharrat Jagdeo, are relentless efforts to criticise government critics and

the press.
Peeping Tom wants the Guyana Press Association to intervene. A number of issues arise here. But first, let’s quote the columnist:  “The GPA must take a definitive stance on whether the weekly PPP press conferences constitute an abuse of press freedom. The GPA should also consider the broader implications of these events on the media. Allowing the media to be conscripted into what amounts to weekly tantrums and platforms for political attacks on rivals does not serve the interests of the public or the principles of journalism.”
So much of this is unadulterated mediocrity. Let’s look at the issues. First, the Guyana Press Association (GPA) is one of Guyana’s most disgraceful organisations and an embarrassment to journalism. Its election for office bearers was riddled with conspiracies. Secondly, who clothes the GPA with the moral authority to pronounce on what press freedom is? The GPA is the last entity in this country that should talk about press freedom.
Thirdly, this anonymous writer refers to the press conferences as characterised by political attacks on rivals. What is wrong when government ministers at press conferences confront rival politicians and anti-government critics? What is politically and morally wrong with such an approach?

It is a worldwide feature, and it has a commonsensical basis–citizens should hear what the government has to say in its defence. One wonders if Peeping Tom and his boss (yes, “his”, Peeping Tom is a male and there is only one Peeping Tom), Glen Lall at Kaieteur News, ever observe press conferences of foreign governments.
Fourthly, the peeper says the political attacks at the PPP press conferences do not serve the interests of the public. How interesting! An anonymous columnist, shamelessly hiding under his mother’s dress for decades now, decides what the public interest is. Fifthly, this same man who hides under his mother’s dress interprets the PPP’s weekly press conference as not serving the principles of journalism.

The reply to this fifth point should be hilarious. Is an anonymous columnist who for decades now has been attacking people in the most insulting way serving the principles of journalism? Surely the answer is no. Of course, the Guyana Government does not do in Guyana what Edward Snowden accused the United States of doing. If it did, then Peeping Tom would have been exposed a long, long time ago and Glen Lall might have had to take his place.

Sixthly, the Peeper takes umbrage at the PPP’s weekly press conference because his paper, the Kaieteur News attends the weekly events not to disseminate news to the people of Guyana but to crusade against the government. And what shape this crusade takes? The newspaper disregards the most elementary rules of journalism by asking the very questions that were advanced the week before and were answered. I now ask the peeper to name the newspaper in Guyana he thinks practises professional journalism. There are newspapers in this country that are more like opposition parties than mainstream media.

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