Reprehensible twisting of President’s lifestyle comments designed for division

One thing is crystal clear. When sections of the formal media and some social media commentators chose to deliberately misrepresent and completely twist President Irfaan Ali’s comments on lifestyle changes in Guyana, they were knowingly being public mischief-makers, creating public distrust and sowing division. Many of the social media commentators did not even listen to what President Ali said. They merely regurgitated what they read either from other social media activists or from what a section of the formal media reported. Worst yet, some of these commentators relied solely on a blazing newspaper headline; they did not even bother to read the actual story.
Some time ago, around 2005, when I was Minister of Health, addressing a workshop dealing with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases, I urged that Guyanese reduce intake of salty, sugary, ultra-processed imported food. The next day, the Kaieteur News’ blazing headline was that the Minister of Health said that Guyanese ate too much. The story itself, hidden somewhere in the paper, by-and-large, adequately explained what was actually said, but commentators and opposition politicians, nevertheless, seized on the false headline.
The headline was deliberately concocted because at the time the VAT bill was passed in Parliament, and the headline was designed to misinform people that VAT was crafted for people to eat less. It was skilful linking of two separate news items to spread a false narrative. The story itself acknowledged that sugary, salty, ultra-processed food was universally regarded as a social determinant of diseases, completely different from the mischievous headline. But the blazing headline is what registered in people’s heads. The intention clearly was to present the Government in a bad light by misinforming people with wicked misrepresentation.
It is in this context that I highlight the controversy that has arisen out of President Irfaan Ali’s media conference held on August 18. Responding to a question on rising cost-of-living, President Ali explained that the cost-of-living problem is one that every country in the world is facing today. There were common, propelling, interconnected economic, geopolitical and environmental factors. Geopolitical conflicts, including the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, and the violent conflicts in Sudan and other places, have led to rising fuel and fertiliser costs, important factors in food production, transportation and the economies of countries, which have played a major role in increasing costs. There has been significant disruption of the global supply chain, with lengthy delays across the Panama Canal, that have affected prices of goods in the Americas. There have been increasing climate-related disasters that have contributed to rising costs.
I was disappointed, but not shocked, that the formal media and social media commentaries from those who are anti-Government reinterpreted and misrepresented much of what President Ali said at the press conference. In fact, the reports and commentaries on the press conference ignored much of the contents and sought to politicise a statement of fact that the President made relating to changes in lifestyles that have consequences for how families and the Government prioritise spending in Guyana.
In addressing the rising cost-of-living problems that Guyana faces, the President never blamed the Guyanese people. The President asserted that rising cost-of-living expenses are a consequence of a complicated set of factors, including international geopolitics, much of which is out of the control of Guyana itself. The President conceded that, although various actions by the Government have contributed to containing the rise, the various interventions have not been enough to completely contain the rise.
He promised that the Government will continue to expand interventions, with actions and policies taking cognisance of changes in people’s lifestyles, examining ways to contain the rise in cost of living while accommodating changes in people’s lifestyles.
It is a fact, an incontrovertible one, that Guyanese eating out more, increasing the contribution of imported sugary and salty food in our diet, changing shopping habits, including preferences for supermarket purchases, and other activities are increasingly becoming part of the lifestyle of citizens. This phenomenon of preferring restaurant food, relying more and more on imported food, and shopping in supermarkets which offer wider choices in products is not new but has significantly increased over the last few years. Home cooking is becoming less prominent in a family’s daily life. There are many reasons for these changes. Families have greater liquidity, more people are working, the transformation of the traditional lifestyle of women being at home has changed, etc. We see in every community, more and more restaurants cropping up. It is not just a Guyanese phenomenon; it is intensifying across the Caribbean and the world. It is the reason why CARICOM imports more than US$6 billion in food.
At no point did the President in his remarks characterise this phenomenon of changing lifestyles as good or bad. He was simply acknowledging changing lifestyles among our people, and, therefore, the Government’s actions and policies must also address cost-of-living challenges, not only by examining what more can be done to address the global issues but also with policies and actions which can accommodate the changing lifestyles of Guyanese.
Yet the headlines and the reports of what President Ali stated were framed as the President blaming citizens for the rising cost of living. At no point did the President blame citizens; at no point did the President seek to frame the problem as the Government doing all it could and that it was now up to the citizens; at no point did the President prescribe that citizens eat less, stay home, boycott restaurants and supermarkets, etc. Those who are pushing this false narrative are being barefaced, dishonest, and mischievous.
Twisting President Ali’s words is despicable, wicked misinformation, underlining the deficit in honesty among sections of the formal media and social media commentators. Such shameless, mischievous misinformation erodes public trust, pervert free speech, and sow division.