THIS is the part of my media career where I am most uncomfortable. It is a requirement of any columnist to look back at his/her country and the world as the old year passes into history. Why I am discomforted is the time it takes and other pressing landscapes have to wait.
In Guyana in 2025, the horizon was littered with as many roses as thorns. In Guyana, in 2025, some incredibly negative things happened and some accomplishments were present that it will take up space to dwell on. Other exigent things have to wait. But whether the writer likes it or not, the review is part of the work of a columnist. People who read you each day of the year want you to reflect on the year gone by.
I have made up my mind; I am not going to do it continuously. I will intersperse it with other topics whose curiosities arouse my intense interests. I have three subjects I want to pursue urgently and the year in review will come in the way.
One is an ugly expression of hypocrisy in a year-end edition of “In The Diaspora” (ITD) in the Stabroek News (SN) written by someone named Romain Khan. ITD is edited by the well-known claimant of Mulatto/Creole politics in Guyana, Alissa Trotz.
What I find unbelievable over the past 10 years is that Ms Trotz said her ITD programme is specifically designed to serve the interests of Guyana’s diaspora. There are about a million Guyanese in the diaspora and over the past 10 years not one person in Guyana’s diaspora has published a letter to Ms Trotz and said; “not in my name.” One hopes that after they have read the miasmic hypocrisy of Mr Khan, they would ask Ms Trotz to explain her competence in editing the ITD.
As we mentioned SN, it is interesting to know that the very first editorial of that paper for 2026 carried these words: “We must leave behind the culture of silence. Too many people see what is wrong but say nothing.” How ironic. SN is writing that about people who are silent about what the government does, but did not mention that people are silent over what the private media have become.
People are silent on the descent into the gutter by the newspaper proudly founded by David DeCaires, but look what it has become today. Since Dr Ali became President in August 2020, there has not been one editorial of SN that even delivered a half-baked commentary that favoured Dr Ali’s government. From 2020, the daily editorials of SN have never printed even one word of praise for the Ali government. And people have been silent over this journalistic caricature since 2020.
People have been silent the past 10 years on the ugly bias of Alissa Trotz. You can find hundreds of Guyanese academics spread over Europe, North America and the Caribbean who endorsed the government of Dr Ali, but Ms Trotz has never asked even one of them to do an article in ITD. Here are some more words from that New Year editorial of SN: “Because speaking up carries the risk of losing a job, labelled as anti-government, or being quietly pushed to the margins.”
Look who is talking! The sound of silence also applies to SN. People are afraid to criticise SN because their views will not be published. They know what will happen. It happened to Dr Randy Persaud, Pan-Africanist Gerald Perreira and others. Let’s use SN’s own words: “They risk being quietly pushed to the margins.”
This columnist that has no working relationship with the state in general or the ruling party in general, yet is described as a PPP lap dog by the Editor-in-Chief of SN, Mr Anand Persaud. Imagine how he feels about people who are attached to the government and support Dr Ali. What word has he reserved for them?
The second item I want to look at in days to come is a review of the latest book by former UG Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith. Titled, “Oil and climate change in Guyana’s Wet Neighbourhood.” This is more of an anti-government rant rather than plausible scholarly material.
The third item I will pronounce on is a reply to Ravi Dev who described the advent of Azruddin Mohamed as the arrival of populism in Guyana. I do not accept that theoretical formula. Populism, though applicable to certain Latin American countries, is more of a process that can be found in industrialised capitalism in Western countries.
My reflections of 2025 begin tomorrow in which I look at the highest point and follow that up with an analysis of 2025’s lowest point the next day.
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.
