BY now, readers will know that the man who does the Saturday editorials for Stabroek News (SN) is frenetically anti-government.
People in Guyana are not naïve to think that Mr Anand Persaud, the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of SN, writes the editorials – Monday to Sunday. Very few newspapers have the EiC doing the daily editorials.

It does happen with very large newspapers in countries where the population is huge. The paper would have an extensive circulation and thus specialist departments are needed. In such a newspaper, the EiC is a very educated man or woman who is expected to do the daily editorials. The large national newspapers in a country such as the US, India, Brazil, China etc, will have a highly skilled editor who will do the daily editorial.

But when specialist topics are needed because of special occurrences, then the newspaper will seek out writers from outside the newspapers to do specific issues. For example, the paper will probably call in an expert of a particular country to write an editorial if that country is at war. If the New York Times wants to look at the global significance of Guyana’s oil fund, it will probably request an editorial from a scholar more familiar with oil in the Third World.

In Guyana, Mr Persaud is not that experienced in politics, sociology, political economy and international relations to do a daily editorial. Mr Persaud has no training at the university level in the subjects listed above.

Here is what former long-serving Sunday Editor of SN, Anna Benjamin, wrote about Mr Persaud. “He read for a B. Ss in Biology, preliminary to enter the medical profession. He decided he was not interested in becoming a doctor and returned to Guyana uncertain about exactly what he wanted to do (taken from: A Benjamin, “Birth of the Stabroek News,” page 123).

The SN since 2020 has had a number of editorial composers who are over-eager critics of the PPP Government (Ms Benjamin writes one editorial a week from her base in the UK). The Saturday editorial is done by a man who is from the Mulatto/Creole class and hates the PPP leadership, based on class and culture. In one editorial he mocked the clothes PPP leaders wear and in another editorial, denounced their lack of familiarity with the English language.

The Saturday man is what he is, so readers can expect the usual anti-government vitriol. Here is the Saturday Man last Saturday on the recently concluded negotiations between the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the government. He was gloating about what he sees as a defeat by the government: “The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), the three-year pact sealed with the government on Wednesday is a victory for constitutionally-enshrined collective bargaining and trade unionism is alive.

The GTU and its members must be congratulated for holding the line on the government. The GTU’s strike was the most effective industrial action for workers’ rights since 1999 against a government. By their militancy, the teachers and their union have relaid the foundation for collective bargaining… public sector workers now have improved prospects if their unions are up to the task.”

But General Secretary of the GTU, Coretta Mc Donald, is not on the same wavelength with Saturday Man. Let’s quote Mc Donald: “The items that were looked at, none of them were in favour of the GTU. This agreement was not properly fleshed out and we can safely say that the President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Mr Mark Lyte; the second Vice President Mr Julian Cambridge and maybe a few of the other officers, they are in consort with the government of Guyana to continue to punish teachers.”

Here, right in front of the eyes of the nation is a display of ugly politics in which people put politics in front of patriotism and nationalism just because they do not like the government. Here is a fascinating manifestation of how people with an anti-government agenda can compose a conspiratorial sermon against the government, but end up contradicting each other.

Here is what played out. Saturday Man’s intention is to make the government look weak and egg on the Public Service Union. So, he proclaimed that the government was defeated and trade unions must follow the lead of the GTU. Mc Donald on the other hand, is a PNC parliamentarian whose agenda is to prolong the strike to weaken the government.

So, the intention of both of them is to weaken the government, but they ended up weakening their credibility and exposing themselves. Guyanese are not stupid. They have seen through both Saturday Man and Coretta Mc Donald.
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.