…and the media
There’s no question the press (and the media in general) plays a seminal role in modern democracies. And with the fundamental problem in this form of government being to prevent them from sliding into dictatorships, the press performs that role best when it refuses to do PR for the politicians and hold their feet to the fire of public scrutiny. That’s why they’re called the “fourth estate”’… to supplement the three other “estates” making up societies.
But the press can also get caught up with its own self-importance and become dictatorial. And this brings up the present case of Minister Harmon versus the Kaieteur News. When APNU/AFC was in opposition and Mook Lall’s vendetta against the PPP was in full swing, it suited his purpose to give the former free rein in its Muckraker to malign and scandalise the PPP – and anyone even remotely connected with that party. Officials from APNU and AFC featured daily in rants against the PPP.
The most scandalous allegations – without even the remotest connection to facts – were concocted and printed daily in banner headlines as emanating from the opposition officials. It got so that most people figured these two parties had been given a carte blanche to the Mook to attribute whatever nastiness he wanted in the public domain, as coming from their lips. But with their surfeit of lawyers, they shoulda known better. At that point “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” was the doctrine of the Mook’s guiding mantra.
It was’t that he necessarily believed in the purity of the new politicians. In fact – and this is very germane to what’s unfolding right now – he had to’ve developed a healthy dose of contempt for the “big men” who allowed him to control their public utterances. So when they got into office, he not surprisingly assumed he could treat them in whichever way he wanted. Wasn’t this how he’d treated the PPP set of politicians?
But as always, the Mook doesn’t know when to stop. He’s gotten too big for his breaches. In the past he could attack the PPP using APNU. But right now, with Harmon standing up to his bullyism, who can the Mook use to attack APNU? Not the PPP – who’ll never forgive him for the role he played in throwing them out. He can try with the AFC as he’s been doing – but their leaders, especially Nagamootoo, have their own fatal problems.
So the Mook is smack between a rock and a hard place. And Hamon should take him to the cleaners.
million should be the beginning of taking care of those veterans!
…in Public Service
There’s no question the Public Service workers played a pivotal role in getting APNU elected into office. Many may believe AFC did the trick – but votes are fungible. One counts just the same as another. And there were a heckuva lot more votes poured into the APNU numbers than from the AFC. So it wasn’t unreasonable for Public Servants to expect what President Granger just derided as “some bonanza.”
Well Pressie didn’t stop there – he made his position very clear as to what Public Servants can expect – just in case they didn’t get it when they got their last “raise”! “I hope they discover that the bonanza will come from their own efforts… if they want to be lazy, they will get a lazy person’s salary… if they work hard, they will be rewarded!”
Now if the PPP had said this there would be riots in the streets of Georgetown by now. Not to mention cries of “racism”!!
But it took the anti-communist Nixon to make peace with communist China, nuh?
…and Special Representatives
PM Nagamootoo’s only “line responsibility” is in “information”.
So what are his four Special Representatives in Regions 2, 5, 6 and 10 supposed to do?
“Carry news” or “bring news”? Ouch!!
