HERE are the words of the Stabroek News (SN) in an editorial of August 10, “The state media is used to bludgeon and intimidate critics”. Here are the words of Mr. Vishu Bisram. “And they (the PPP government) are known (using tropes) to go after critics as we see in the response to Dr. Ramcharan’s thesis on shades of autocracy.”

Here are the words of Dr. Bertrand Ramcharran: “The army of vituperative reactions in various parts of the media do (sic) a disservice to the Government, which should maintain a dignified posture.”  Let’s briefly discuss SN’s outburst because I have confronted that exclamation before. Please see my column of Friday, August 23, 2024, “Who are the critics the state media have bludgeoned?”

Just to add to that column about the SN’s perception. If you compare the state media and the privately owned SN and Kaieteur News (KN) for political criticism, the hatred for the government in KN and SN far outweighs the condemnation of anti-government critics in the Guyana Chronicle.
One would like to think that it is the other way around; the SN and KN are so filled with letters attacking government defenders that if the defenders did not have thick skin, they would have faded by now. Joel Bhagwandin and Dr. Randy Persaud are always the focus of those bloggers who pen comments on the online edition of SN and their criticisms border on irrational condemnation of these two men.

Yet SN has the temerity to tell their readers that the state media bludgeon critics of the government. It is SN’s bloggers that seek to bludgeon people who write in favour of the government and their net is cast far and wide, even attacking people who are independent like Mr. Ralph Ramkarran. Look at the deriding comments on Mr. Ramkarran’s disagreement with Dr. Ramcharran’s perception that there is a creeping autocracy in the governance of Guyana.

You read these bloggers and you just know that SN and KN have become the Fox News of Guyana. Attorney-General, Anil Nandlall, in reference to the online comment section in SN wrote the following: “This blog publishes the most toxic and unwarranted criticisms of our Government and its officials by anonymous bloggers. I know of dozens of persons who made innumerable attempts to get their views published on this blog in response to this daily tirade of baseless and malicious attacks but were never able to get past the Editor’s guillotine. “
I repeat: Yet the SN has the temerity to accuse the state media bludgeoning critics of the government. What a hypocritical and funny side to Guyana. Let us move on to Bisram. He shouts out that the PPP government is known to go after people who criticise it and he points to persons who have condemned Bertrand Ramsarran for claiming that there is a creeping autocracy in Guyana.

But by what logic, a government must muzzle itself when it faces derogations, vilification, and propagandistic outpourings? If governments remain silent during consistent thunderstorms of attacks in the media, then how can ruling parties win re-election? Since they should not reply, then when their critics lash out at them, voters will believe the fictions and that can translate into vote loss.

For a man who said he has six masters and six doctorates, then you wonder what he has learnt from his gargantuan studies. Why are PPP defenders mischievous people for confronting what Dr. Ramcharran wrote if they think what he pontificated on was less scholarly and more propagandistic?
Isn’t that the right to free speech? Mr. Bisram criticises the PPP government often in a weekly letter in the press, accusing the government of corruption in a letter on August 10. I quote him: “The public feels that corruption pervades almost every aspect of governance….” Why Bisram has the right to publish such a damaging statement, but the government hasn’t got the right to accuse Bisram of anti-government bias.

And why when those who support the government reply to people like Dr. Ramcharran, they are accused of being hitmen sent by the government as Dr. Ramcharran intoned in the following quote: “A classic method of autocracy is to deploy undignified ‘hit-men’ to cow people into fear. The Government might wish to think about the image these ‘hit-men’ are giving it.”

Dr. Randy Persaud and Ralph Ramkarran outlined a scholarly critique of Dr. Ramcharran’s accusation of autocratic governance. Are they hitmen? Dr. Ramcharran is insulting decent people who have replied to his nonsensical statement. Why the people who have exposed the infantile perception of Dr. Ramcharran were sent by the government. What the Stabroek News, Vishu Bisram and Bertrand Ramcharran are doing is to deny people their right to pen opinions in support of the government.

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.