BY now, most readers of my columns would know I refer to the writer of the Saturday editorials of the Stabroek News as “Saturday Man.” This person is a hate-filled personality from the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC) who carries from the 1930s, the elitism of the MCC and the disdain for the East Indian race in Guyana.

Interestingly, there is a Facebook post last month from the Deputy Vice Chancellor of UG, Dr. Melissa Ifill, in which she puts a class interpretation of the controversy over the consensus candidate between the PNC and AFC.

Terrence Campbell added a comment to Dr. Ifill’s articulation but stayed away from Dr. Ifill’s contention of class and colour as factors in the controversy.

I believe what Dr. Ifill had to say is important for those who believe in, and use, class analysis to understand Guyana’s politics and sociology, and I will compose a column on Dr. Ifill’s take in the coming days because I have written consistently since the election fiasco in March 2020 on the crystallisation of the MCC’s instincts. I think I must have done about 20 or 25 columns on the subject-matter.

But back to Saturday Man. The Saturday, January 13, 2024 editorial of SN, titled, “Four guys sitting around a coffee table,” goes right back to the anti-Jagan newspapers of the 1960s. It is a culturally insulting piece laced with racist instincts. If you want to see how deeply poisonous is the MCC against Indian politicians in the PPP read that editorial.

The editorial is a comment on a photo on the President’s Facebook page in which it depicts the President and Vice-President along with two other Cabinet members discussing government’s direction.

Saturday Man’s mind is so agonisingly toxic that he describes Mr. Jagdeo as the de factor leader of the government simply because his shirt sleeve is rolled up and his arms in a pointing position. Please do not accept what I wrote here; read the editorial.

Can you look at a photo of four government leaders discussing documents around a table and because one of them has his shirt sleeves rolled up and is gesticulating it shows that he is the boss and not the president?

Let me quote Saturday Man, “The President is scribbling something in the background. As such the choice of the image would indicate the President is comfortable to be depicted as playing second fiddle to his mentor.”

It was the President that posted the photo. Imagine the contempt the MCC has for this government. The President posted a photograph of him and his colleagues at work and he chose an image in which he plays second fiddle to his Vice President? Really!

Can you look at a photograph of any president with some of his Cabinet Ministers and because the President is slightly obscured by another person in the frame, it denotes that he is subordinate to the other person in the frame that is more visible. I have seen hundreds of photographs in which Prime Ministers and Presidents are in the frame with colleagues and there are others whose visibility is more pronounced.

Let’s quote again from Saturday Man and ask your yourself what has become of the SN but more importantly think of the type of insane and irrational criticisms the government has to put up with.

I quote: “They say a photograph is worth a thousand words and this one encapsulates a lot of what is understood to be the dynamics within the ruling party and its approach to governance.”

Can journalism get lower than this? Can anti-government criticism get more degenerate than this? A newspaper looks at four government leaders around a table with documents scattered on the table and they are in discussion with one of them gesticulating and that photo “encapsulates a lot of what is understood to be the dynamics within the ruling party and its approach to governance.”

Can a human look at a still photograph with four government leaders at work and that image indicates the nature of governance of a country? What is inside that still photograph that gives you clues as to how the country is governed?

If it is a video and action is being done and words are being said, then you can probably glean from the action and words how the men approach governance. But surely not a still photograph. Before I go, there is bound to be the question as to why I am writing on something way back in January 2024.

I pulled out an old telephone book to get the telephone number of Dr. Steve Surujbally and some old clippings fell out, and that editorial was staring me in the face thus this column that you are reading now.

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.