THE English philosopher, John Locke, paid special attention to the concept of obligation. It forms an important part of his philosophy.
Obligation forms a huge part of the nature of civilisation. It is the binding wire that holds civilisation together. Locke believed that each human has an obligation to the preservation of mankind.
Obligation is never nuanced; it is all pervasive and general. Obligation inheres in natural law. In every sphere of life obligation should reign. Once obligation is absent or derecognised then moral foundations on which civilisation rests are jeopardised.
Whether it is a supermarket and its customers, government and its subjects, parents and their kids, professionals and their clients, employers and their employees, the media and their watchers and readers, the police and the citizens, obligation must underpin all relationships.
I have never seen in the world of the media in any country, two newspapers in Guyana –Kaieteur News (KN) and Stabroek News (SN) – where even at an elementary level, there is no obligation to readers.
Two names come to mind. Vishnu Bisram and GHK Lall. Leonard Craig did a devastating dismissal of GHK Lall in last Monday’s Chronicle, a route I would have avoided because 10 years ago, I detected the psychological fulcrums of Lall.
It was clear that Lall was a nobody in the US and when he came home, he wanted to be someone. The method he used was publicity intoxication. He simply craved publicity and he found it by latching on to firstly, the Stabroek News then the Kaieteur News. More on Craig’s political erasure of Lall below. Let’s look at Bisram.
Writing in the letter pages of Monday’s edition KN, Bisram once more stated he has multiple doctorates and multiple masters. I quote him: “I have multiple doctorates and several MAs.”
In his Monday letter, Mr. Bisram did not state a number. Elsewhere, he mentioned six doctorates and six Masters. No one in the world has six doctorates and six masters.
But why the KN and SN do not feel that they have an obligation to ask Mr. Bisram for a description of these 12 higher degrees. If he has them, then the newspapers have an obligation to their readers who do not believe Bisram.
A request from Mr. Bisram to state qualifications and universities they came from, publications and institutions that he worked at is obligatory.
Once that is done, it puts the matter to rest. I stress that in any other part of the world, if Mr. Bisram was a frequent letter-writer to newspapers and he boasts about having 12 higher degrees and that disclosure generated controversy, the newspaper would have made a request of Bisram. It simply boggles the mind that KN and SN do not want to ask Bisram for an elaboration which they owe it to their readers to do.
Now for Lall. People have told me, credible people with more experience and education than GHK Lall, that they cannot get their letters in the SN.
Former President, Donald Ramotar, said to me last week these words: “Freddie, I know you don’t like Kaieteur News but you can get your letters published there more than Stabroek News.” Put an interpretation to what these words mean.
So GHK Lall publishes a daily letter in SN, but there isn’t an editorial note about Lall’s refusal to offer an explanation as to why his former boss, then Minister, Raphael Trotman, when Lall was head of the Gold Board, glaringly contradicted him over Lall’s statement on Azruddin Mohamed and his father.
Lall said during his time as chairman of the Gold Board, the name of the Mohameds never came up in documents sent by the Americans to the Gold Board. Trotman said the Mohameds were named.
Even if Lall does not see the need to display obligation to his readers, SN has an obligation to its readers because it carries Lall’s verbal rampaging every day. These two newspapers are the lead critics of the Guyana Government. They rant all the time about the need for the government to show obligation to the citizenry. The SN wrote about that very subject of obligation in its editorial Monday last.
Yet these newspapers have displayed barefaced arrogance in not showing obligation to their readers who patronise them and the Guyanese people in general. If you know the management of these two newspapers, the way I do, you will be disgusted at how they see their obligation – They dismiss it.
They do not for one second feel that they have the obligation to explain controversies their newspapers are involved in. Yet these people want us to accept their criticism of the Guyana Government. Do you?

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.