State media peddling propaganda - AFC
SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER NEWS
“Despite the presence and show of great unity, solidarity and purposefulness at our press conference last Saturday announcing our new Prime Ministerial Candidate Mr. Raphael Trotman, and despite the pronouncements of our General Secretary that the election process was most transparent, it is quite mind- boggling how the Guyana Times in its Sunday Edition of September 18, 2011 came up with its caption “Leadership crisis looms in AFC as Trotman returns.” This comment was made by National Coordinator of the Alliance for Change, Neilson McKenzie, at a press conference at the party’s headquarters yesterday.
According to McKenzie, the privately owned newspaper seems now to be joining the ranks of other state media entities spreading paragons of propaganda and calculated political cunningness. “The AFC fails to see the connection between the meeting of the party’s NEC and WikiLeaks revelations but is very delighted that the PPP has indeed been reading them.” Neilson said that the very fact that the PPP has begun to refer and quote from them is important. However this invocation cannot be selective but rather comprehensive in scope. He further said that the AFC submits that in functional, normal and workable democracies, the recent WikiLeaks revelations would have been sufficiently damning materials for Ministers to resign and for Governments to be voted out. In no functional democracy would a Presidential Candidate say that he is slightly amused by them.
Neilson further underscored that an important outcome of the WikiLeaks revelations is the establishment, beyond all doubt, that this PPP administration has been linked to the Roger Khan death squad. Thus, it has been established that the PPP has indeed criminalized the State. He said that the AFC refers the Guyanese people to a cable dated July 31, 2009 when Charge d’ Affaires Karen Williams told Washington that when Roger Khan was being pursued by US law enforcement in 2006, he had put Leslie Ramsammy’s name forward as a potential mediator between himself and the US Government. Williams added that a “close associate of Khan worked with Ramsammy in the Ministry of Health, and that the former death squad leader himself is widely rumoured to have had regular Saturday meetings with the Minister.”
Further, Williams cabled in 2009 that “the consensus among International Donor community observers is that democracy and the rule of law is at its lowest ebb since the 2006 elections. The 2011 elections, although nearly two years away, already seem to loom large on the horizon. Serious policy reform projects, such as the security sector, have fallen to the way side…” “The AFC submits that the present posturing and attitude of this Government pretending as if none of this happened is shameful and can only occur in a society in which issues have not served as the criteria for the election of Governments. This is truly a situation where a sitting Government has breached with impunity the law of the land.” He said.
“The AFC challenges the PPP and their cronies at NCN, the Chronicle and now the Times to publish the names of the other countries who have had both their Commissioner of Police and Minister of Home Affairs’ visas revoked by key nations of the free world. “The Guyanese people will not be hoodwinked by the PPP’s penchant for the bending and twisting of truth and reality in service of its depraved political survival.”
Source
SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER NEWS
“Despite the presence and show of great unity, solidarity and purposefulness at our press conference last Saturday announcing our new Prime Ministerial Candidate Mr. Raphael Trotman, and despite the pronouncements of our General Secretary that the election process was most transparent, it is quite mind- boggling how the Guyana Times in its Sunday Edition of September 18, 2011 came up with its caption “Leadership crisis looms in AFC as Trotman returns.” This comment was made by National Coordinator of the Alliance for Change, Neilson McKenzie, at a press conference at the party’s headquarters yesterday.
According to McKenzie, the privately owned newspaper seems now to be joining the ranks of other state media entities spreading paragons of propaganda and calculated political cunningness. “The AFC fails to see the connection between the meeting of the party’s NEC and WikiLeaks revelations but is very delighted that the PPP has indeed been reading them.” Neilson said that the very fact that the PPP has begun to refer and quote from them is important. However this invocation cannot be selective but rather comprehensive in scope. He further said that the AFC submits that in functional, normal and workable democracies, the recent WikiLeaks revelations would have been sufficiently damning materials for Ministers to resign and for Governments to be voted out. In no functional democracy would a Presidential Candidate say that he is slightly amused by them.
Neilson further underscored that an important outcome of the WikiLeaks revelations is the establishment, beyond all doubt, that this PPP administration has been linked to the Roger Khan death squad. Thus, it has been established that the PPP has indeed criminalized the State. He said that the AFC refers the Guyanese people to a cable dated July 31, 2009 when Charge d’ Affaires Karen Williams told Washington that when Roger Khan was being pursued by US law enforcement in 2006, he had put Leslie Ramsammy’s name forward as a potential mediator between himself and the US Government. Williams added that a “close associate of Khan worked with Ramsammy in the Ministry of Health, and that the former death squad leader himself is widely rumoured to have had regular Saturday meetings with the Minister.”
Further, Williams cabled in 2009 that “the consensus among International Donor community observers is that democracy and the rule of law is at its lowest ebb since the 2006 elections. The 2011 elections, although nearly two years away, already seem to loom large on the horizon. Serious policy reform projects, such as the security sector, have fallen to the way side…” “The AFC submits that the present posturing and attitude of this Government pretending as if none of this happened is shameful and can only occur in a society in which issues have not served as the criteria for the election of Governments. This is truly a situation where a sitting Government has breached with impunity the law of the land.” He said.
“The AFC challenges the PPP and their cronies at NCN, the Chronicle and now the Times to publish the names of the other countries who have had both their Commissioner of Police and Minister of Home Affairs’ visas revoked by key nations of the free world. “The Guyanese people will not be hoodwinked by the PPP’s penchant for the bending and twisting of truth and reality in service of its depraved political survival.”
Source
The AFC is very delighted that the PPP has indeed being reading the recently released WikiLeaks cables. The very fact that the PPP has begun to refer and quote from them is important. However this invocation cannot be selective but rather comprehensive in scope.