WHENEVER politicians in the ruling party respond to personal attacks or attempts to scathe the party or government publicly, we often hear of the charge of intolerance to criticism. As it appears, some people in this society seem to believe that politicians in government, in their own right and the government as a whole, must absorb all manner of twisted and manufactured political attacks and should not respond. Any sliver of response from the government usually evokes cries of victimisation and intolerance.

These charges are loudest from the opposition, however, when the scale of responses and reaction to even mild criticisms is evaluated, any honest report will show that opposition politicians and elements opposed to the government display more crass intolerance than anything coming from the government.

Roaming our information avenues are many malicious anti-government actors whose sole purpose is to weaponise misinformation to try to cause maximum political damage.
Social media is littered with personalities who gain notoriety fuelled by incessant anti-government propaganda, half-truths and raging lies. Some of the greatest offenders do not reside in Guyana; they are perched overseas, where it is difficult or nearly impossible to serve them legal notices for libel and defamation, or they can easily escape their day in court or circumvent criminal charges under our cybercrime laws.

The government, for its part, must respond when criticised or attacked. I don’t think any sensible person anywhere on the planet will deny the government its right to respond. In fact, it is a sacred duty of the government to constantly and continuously provide information, counteract disinformation, defend its record and effectively treat with persistent, calculated mischievous elements.

Of recent vintage, we have the ubiquity of a certain anti-government social media sensation, who makes daily outrageous accusations against the government and government officials.
Not so long ago, this personality labelled the $100,000 cash grant as a scam and alleged that the cheques are valid for only 3 days. This kind of false information has several effects; it can deter eligible persons from accessing the grant because the 3-day window is inconvenient; it could fuel an artificial deluge of people trying to cash in before expiration, thereby overwhelming the small admin staff and overcrowding the banks, which would give the appearance of confusion everywhere in the country; it can also lead to general distrust of government and break down of law and order.

In the last few days, this same social media personality claimed that there is a sinister plan by the government to detain thousands of black youths, in known Afro-dominated enclaves, close to the election date and incarcerate them solely to prevent them from voting for the opposition.
You do not need lenses or filters to see how diabolically dangerous this type of disinformation is. This personality has had several pages removed and the account deactivated by Meta, because decent-minded Guyanese must have flagged and reported the page. No doubt, the blame for the deactivations was placed on the government, accompanied by searing charges of intolerance and victimisation.

Even if the government were in some way directly involved in the request to remove such a page, it would not be inappropriate. Some of those pages, prior to their removal, had amassed north of 200,000 followers. This represents nearly one-third of the Guyanese population. Just the sheer scale of having such major perpetuation of dangerous disinformation and unfounded character assignations as a daily menu should not see the light of day, where possible.

Opposition elements seem to think they can make any damaging statement about any person, in or close to the government, at any time while the government warm the seat of docility and allows misinformation, criminality, defamation, character assassination and unmitigated lies to go unrivalled. If these overseas personalities were in Guyana and were willing to defend the veracity of their daily outpourings in court, then that is a different matter.

However, if they insulate themselves from our court process while scandalising and literally destroying lives and relationships and instigating social disorder, whatever mechanisms are at the government’s disposal to have their social media accounts permanently removed should be used. It may be the only resort despite the illegitimate claims of intolerance.

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.