TWO observations of Mr. Ralph Ramkarran need correcting for two reasons. Those who only read Mr. Ramkarran will accept as factual the situation he has painted, though it doesn’t mean Mr. Ramkarran set out to leave out pertinent facts. The second reason is that the historical record needs to remain intact.
The first observation—Stabroek News, January 25, 2026. About the biography of Forbes Burnham by Professor Linden Lewis, Mr. Ramkarran wrote: “It has attracted no attention in Guyana even though two well-known academics in the political science field have commended it.” This is not factual. I did a review, mostly critical of the book, in my Guyana Chronicle column. It is dated Tuesday, March 4, 2024, and captioned: “Book review: Burnham’s biographer omits Freudian methodology.”
The second observation was February 15, 2026. Mr. Ramkarran noted: “… the restoration of democracy in 1992 and its survival in 2020 would not have been possible without the Stabroek News.” This is not an accurate reflection on the role of the private media during the five-month election ordeal in 2020. I cannot understand how Mr. Ramkarran could have missed the monumental role of Kaieteur News, which was far greater than Stabroek News’ during that crisis period.
Here now is the correction for the preservation of the historical record. A media house lays down a position that becomes the policy of the media house, and all staff—photojournalists, cartoonists, columnists, reporters, and letter writers—have to observe that policy. One such policy in Europe is not to carry opinions on the denial of the Holocaust. Another policy in global media houses is the rejection of open boasts of racial superiority.
At the present time, in the West, mainstream media organisations do not accept that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and reporters are not allowed to use the word in their transmissions. Some news entities in the Western world, like the US, UK, selected EU countries, Australia, etc would not carry any item that is a condemnation of homosexual relationships.
During the five months of attempted election rigging of the three private newspapers – Guyana Times, Kaieteur News and Stabroek News – only Stabroek News refused to adopt a policy of excluding endorsements for the attempted rigging in its columns and letter section. Guyana Times and KN did not allow publication of opinions in favour of the rigging in its pages.
At the time, SN had three weekly columnists, and all were writing in support of the rigging. I cannot understand Mr. Ramkarran’s praise when SN was carrying three weekly pieces from March to July that openly embraced five months of conspiracy to overturn the legal results of the election. To grasp what was happening in SN pages at the time, all the readers have to do is visit SN pages for that period.
Here now is a description of an eyewitness account of what happened at KN. At the time, Leonard Gildarie and I were doing a daily election analysis on Kaieteur Radio. Mr. Glen Lall invited us to an emergency meeting of the editorial section of the newspaper. Mr. Lall’s position was that the paper believes there is a determined effort to tamper with the results of the election, and the paper must expose and condemn such illegalities.
Two things happened after that. The then proofreader tampered with a line in my column to make it appear that I had opined that I do not know if there is any evidence of rigging. I objected to what she did, and she was upbraided. Secondly, Mr. Sase Gunraj, GECOM commissioner, was consulted by the paper on exactly what the role of the international observers was.
This happened because there was confusion as to the latitude the observers were entitled to, with the editor, Adam Harris, taking the view that they have no scope for intervening to correct anything they may want to correct; their role was to observe the process.
Mr. Gunraj read the law and pointed out that the observers have a crucial role in seeing that the process is proper and legal and are accorded the right to reject improprieties if they see that such incursions are illegal. The next day, KN printed a letter by Vincent Alexander, which argued that the observers have no role to play in the election process but simply to observe.
I was present and got involved in the argument with Mr. Harris that the letter should not have been carried. Mr. Lall asked Harris to step down, and that was the last day of Harris as editor. The SN played no crucial role over and above KN in preserving democracy in 2020. I hope Mr. Ramkarran duly acknowledges that fact.
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.