MR. Christopher Ram is one of the most virulent critics of the government. But here are his words yesterday (Sunday) in the Stabroek News (SN) in relation to President Ali’s financial/economic package announced during the President’s address to Parliament last week: “It was a comprehensive and ambitious presentation, embodying responses to calls by various stakeholders.

The President committed vast sums to reshape Guyana’s future, improve living standards, and build a modern, resilient nation. These policies aim to provide immediate financial relief to citizens. From all the vibes, the initiatives are popular and have the potential to improve living standards.”

Mr. Ralph Ramkarran is not a supporter of the PPP. He formed his own party, ANUG, that contested the election in 2020 and should have had a parliamentarian in the House at the moment except that the Asha Kissoon scandal has got in the way. Mr. Ramkarran is seen as the patron of ANUG and no doubt will be advising it in the 2025 election.

Despite not being a supporter of the PPP government here are the words of Mr. Ramkarran yesterday (Sunday) in SN. “This utilisation of the resources of the Guyanese people at this Christmastime to provide to them direct benefits will go a far way to ease the burden of the cost of living. President Ali’s address will overwhelmingly transform the political discourse, quite apart from improving the lives of the Guyanese people.”

Let us now juxtapose what Ram and Ramkarran wrote with the position of the Stabroek News. We start with the Saturday Man.

In several columns, I pointed out that the editorials for Saturdays in SN are written by a man from the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC) that hates the PPP. This man’s outpourings against the government exceed the manifestations any bile that comes from the opposition parties and some civil society groups that hate the government. Of course, the editorials represent the perspectives, beliefs and feelings of the newspaper.

So, Saturday Man’s toxic denunciations of the government are symbolic of how the SN sees the government.
I now quote from the editorial of Saturday, October 12. “The money being disbursed is the entitlement of all the people of this country so when the President addressed Parliament, it isn’t that he has the sole say or it is the PPP that is doing the country a favour. One must ask what is the philosophy of this $200,000 grant? Handing out $200,000 to each household is nonsense. Are the handouts to include the oil bosses?”

What is quoted here from the Saturday editorial is a mild version of the abuse the editorial heaped on the President even going so far to personally criticise him.

Not satisfied with its degenerate insults, the SN continued the next day (Sunday). I now quote from that edition: “This was a pre-election campaign speech containing some dramatic financial inducements.”

I have argued on this page and I have repeated my adumbration over several columns the past year that the SN is far more poisonous in its condemnation of the government than any opposition party. Even Mr. Ram and Ramkarran evoked their conscience and intellectual worth and acknowledged that the President’s package was positive but SN couldn’t muster any decency to at least acknowledge that even one of the items in the President’s package was commendable.

SN looked at each item, especially Saturday Man, and its comment on each was cynical.

I am making a prediction and I know in the coming months I will be proven right; when the election campaign gets underway, the SN is going to spew far more dirty, acidic and ugly vilifications than the opposition parties on the campaign trail.

Here is my analysis why this is so. I have ruminated on this subject in more than 15 columns recently. The Kaieteur News (KN) is anti-government but the crucial difference in the anti-opposition crusade of KN and SN is in class and colour prejudice. The KN is not driven by class and colour in its condemnations of the government. The KN story is about one man’s ambition and his political hatred for certain players in the PPP leadership. It begins and ends there.

In fairness to KN, it has taken a pro-Palestinian stance and has reported on all the street marches in support of Palestine. SN has not featured any of those marches. SN has published an interview with the Israeli ambassador to the UN but ignored the press conferences of the Palestinian ambassador to Guyana and the Palestinian ambassador to the UN. Both were in Guyana.

SN’s crusade against the PPP government is based on class and colour. The SN personifies the attitude of the MCC that did not accept the return to power of the PPP after 2020 and will not in 2025.

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.