I HAD unlimited respect for Eusi Kwayana before the 2020 general election. I have been energetic in active politics for over 55 years, in which I have seen the indomitable spirit of Kwayana. I will compose a separate column of an encounter I had last week on the seawall with two visiting Guyanese of my age, who engaged me on my criticism of Guyana’s Kwayana and others. But more of that in a few days’ time.
In order not to include material here from that forthcoming column, I will stop here and say briefly that I could not accept Kwayana’s response to me that he couldn’t discuss the election from his distant position in the US. The world has come a far, far way in how it has brought the disparate part of the world together.

The world is one small place, because of the technology of live-streaming. There is no geographical separation, so to speak, with live-streaming. The events in the command centre of GECOM at Ashmin’s Building surrounding the March 2020 election was live-streamed.

I saw Roxanne Myers, through live-streaming, telling a few PPP election officials to pick up their ‘trash (her word)’ and leave the command centre. Leonard Gildarie and I were watching the live-streaming from Kaieteur Radio, where we were monitoring the election. The world saw the deportment of Myers in the Ashmin Building.

How, then, could Myers have sued for aspects of her behaviour that were live- streamed? Live-streaming should prevent foolish people from suing. A simple example should explain why. If a demonstration outside a building is being live-streamed, and a doctor is seen slapping a protestor, he cannot sue if you write that it is unbecoming of a doctor that you named to publicly slap a teenager.

The defence has to prove that what he wrote was factual; the defence is going to produce the tape. On what basis the judge is going to uphold a libel, when the tape shows the slap? What is the evidence the plaintiff is going to present to the court that he was libeled. There can only be one position: It was not he in the tape.

Libel becomes productive for the plaintiff if the offending words come from normative conclusions. If you write that John Doe was involved in fraud at each place he worked, then libel can be successful, because unless the companies can be summoned or the police, then the defendant will have a hard time defending libel.

Roxanne Myers brought three libel writs on different occasions against me, Sanjeev Datadin and Vice-President Jagdeo in relation to the 2020 general election. She has lost all three. I will comment on the one against Mr. Jagdeo, in which she claimed that he defamed her by stating that she’d held the GECOM chairperson against her will during the 2020 election disaster in March of 2020.

I will quote from one of the most important books on Guyana written on politics and the threat to democracy. Fifty years from now, that book will be a vintage classic as the next generation looks back at the long battle for Guyana’s future after Independence. The book is titled: “Democracy Prevails: The Chronicle of the Guyana 2020 elections”.

This will be a long quote taken from Page 55, but, unfortunately, there was no way to make it brief, because the shortness would have taken away from the vividness of the incident. I quote: “The GECOM chair absence began to raise alarm. In a video post by PPP election agent, Romel Roopnarine, the lock on the door of the GECOM chair appeared to have been removed. Chants were heard from party agents shouting; “free the chairman.” Emergency technicians arrived in an ambulance but were refused entry to the office of the chair by the police. A number of persons attempted to gain access to the office. A live Facebook video posted by Lenox Shuman related to reports circulating that the chair was laid on the ground. A number of persons attempted to break the door.”

It is interesting to read what the judge said in his ruling against Myers. He said three things that need reflecting on. One: Myers did not deny the specific allegation about holding the chairperson as hostage; she only issued a general denial. Two: Myers offered no facts to disprove what Jagdeo had said. Three: It is factual that Myers was in the room with the chairperson.

So, Myers lost her case about events on that fateful day about her role in that room. Can she please tell the nation what she was doing in that room for all those hours?

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.