JOURNALISM in Guyana has to be the second worst in the world after the United States. What passes for journalism in this country sometimes is vulgar mediocrity. The AFC has so many skeletons in the cupboard that it can sink an aircraft carrier. Yet none of these enquiries ever crosses the mind of journalists at the weekly press conference of the AFC.

Imagine that the current General-Secretary of the AFC, Raphael Trotman, wrote a book describing that at the height of his political career in 2015, he was overlooked for a Cabinet post by the AFC and not one journalist has ever asked Trotman why was that so.
Imagine that David Granger brought in a White British consultant to advise him on the 2020 election and the man chose not to meet with the AFC, and not one journalist at those weekly AFC press conferences has ever asked the AFC to explain.

Imagine that when the AFC met in 2015 to select its ministers, the current leaders of the AFC, minus Michel Carrington, telephoned a woman and offered her the post of Minister of the Environment overlooking many educated AFC stalwarts and not one journalist has ever asked for an explanation.
So the AFC is busy campaigning and it continues to hold its weekly press conference but none of these skeletons is ever probed by the journalists. On the other side of the fence, the situation is the opposite. Any minister of government that holds a press briefing is overrun by the bombardment of the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News. They ask everything under the sun about the government and the ruling party.

This is the state of journalism in Guyana today. So what is the explanation for not putting relevant questions to the AFC leaders each Friday? We are taking about unprofessional, politicised journalism.
This country per capita must have the largest amount of farceurs in the world. Here is why. There was a journalist in Guyana, many moons ago whose name is Emile Mervin. This gentleman is a devoted fan of the Stabroek News. He is perhaps more enamoured with the Stabroek News than the owners themselves.
Mervin wrote a letter in his favourite newspaper informing readers that they must look out for a soon to be released missive from him on how the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News educate the people of Guyana. This was such a comical statement that I went right away to my keyboard and confronted Mervin (see my column of Wednesday, March 13, 2024 captioned, “The press educates Guyanese? Really!).

We are still to see Mervin’s letter promised in March and now is October. Last week, Janet Bulkan referred to the independent press in Guyana. But this press that ‘educates’ Guyana and is ‘independent’ behaves more like opposition parties than newspapers. So this ‘independent press’ was at the AFC press conference last Friday and chose to protect one of the AFC’s bigwigs – Dr. Vincent Adams.

Speaking at the press meeting, Dr. Adams called upon Minister of Foreign Affairs, Huge Todd, to apologise for his reflection on squatting in Linden. Adams wants an apology for the people of Linden. Adams said that there is need for sensitivity when discussing squatting. But on which issue in Guyana there should be more sensitivity than on racial incitement.

One of Adams’ colleagues in the AFC intoned in July 2020 at a virtual meeting of the extended membership of the AFC that given the racial polarization in Guyana, the wisest direction is for the country to have two separate states – one for Indians and one for Africans. Adams remains the only one in the top brass of the AFC to confront that statement.

Since July 2020, Adams has remained silent on this political treason. No other AFC bigwig has commented on this unforgivable exclamation by a top personality in the AFC. Now it may be wrong but it is logical as to why the AFC hierarchy is silent. They want to protect their colleague. But this is where the press comes in.

Why should the press protect the AFC? That is not how journalism should be. In journalism there are no sacred cows. The Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News are going to be at the AFC press meeting next Friday but the racial partition issue will not be raised. This is how politicised journalism has become in Guyana. The journalists last Friday knew about Adams’ rebuke on the racial partition thing but deliberately chose not to ask him about it. Maybe we can do a column on the merger of politics and journalism in Guyana.

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.