There has to be a yardstick by which you judge people in a crisis
Kaieteur News – Guyanese middle class in and out of Guyana, instinctively send their letters to the Stabroek News (SN). In their mental picture of Guyanese society, SN represents their class. This column here is not a criticism of a sister newspaper. SN is not the subject, but it is the object that the middle uses to display their cultural arrogance thus SN becomes part of the discussion.
When in March, I asked Moses Bhagwan and Eusi Kwayana why before the 2020 election, they didn’t publicly request the APNU+AFC to seek power-sharing since they were requesting that in the election impasse, I didn’t see a published response. Just by accident, Dr. Nigel Westmaas in an email exchange told me that Kwayana did reply but SN did not carry it. I was angry. Kwayana was replying to a KN columnist, why SN should carry the letter? Westmaas never sent the missive to KN even though the issue was my column and Kwayana was responding to a KN writer.
It was during five months of the election rigging that KN displayed the sociological perspective on Guyanese nationalism that other media houses did not. I will implore that readers do not see the argument here as singing a song for KN because I write for the newspaper. This column is a sociological analysis of middle class hypocrisy and KN and SN are only mentioned for reasons that both newspapers found themselves caught in a situation in which a newspaper had to take a stand of the election crisis.
It is public knowledge that as the rigging went on, KN and its then editor, Adam Harris, had a problematic relationship and Harris was gone. Then the newspaper found that two of its columnists – David Hinds and Lincoln Lewis – were expressing sentiments about the election that were antithetical to the newspaper’s perspective on certain fundamental values. Both columnists were gone.
Without criticizing SN, except for editorials, its columnists did not express the same perspective as Kaieteur News’.
One cannot categorize Ralph Ramkarran as a SN columnist. The paper republishes his private blogs. Every SN columnist supported election rigging using subterfuge. In the case of Henry Jeffrey, the PPP benefitted from a bloated list. Other SN columnist used three perspectives – GECOM should be the only body to pronounce on what was happening; the foreign observers were intruding; the ABC countries had imperialist design and that forced them to side with the PPP.
Let’s end our discussion on the newspaper and look at the crisis and its consequences. My theory is that the 2020 rigged election by the APNU+AFC with assistance from elements within the GECOM secretariat constituted one of the gravest moments in both the history of British Guiana and post-colonial Guyana. It was imperative on all to save Guyana.
The impending disaster showed how deeply shattered is the psyche of sections of this country. Do you know the column “In the Diaspora” never devoted even a paragraph on the election rigging which went on for five consecutive months? Do you know the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) never condemned the atrocious behaviour of elements in GECOM, including Claudette Singh, and deliberately avoided commentary on the five-month ordeal?
Do you know the Transparency Institute never wrote on the horrible consequences Guyana was facing for five months? The factual election results were declared, a new government was sworn in. Then the shattered psyche showed its ugly dimensions. As soon as constitutional normalcy was restored, “In the Diaspora” published a caustic column on Pompeo’s visit.
That was followed up by a letter (it was not sent to KN) in the same vein signed by more than 60 Guyanese organizations referring to themselves as civil society. See my response to this ugly situation in my column of Friday, September 18, 2020, “Zone of peace, zone of Mia Mottley, zone of the dangerous mind.” These civil groups were nowhere to be seen when Guyana was literally facing a dangerous descent into civil war.
There are now appearing frequent letters (sent only in SN) urging constitutional reform, inclusive culture and similar values and signed by signatures that were completely invisible at a time when Guyana needed their energy, pens and voices. What kind of psychological interpretation the academic can put to such ugly minds. I have used the word “ugly” three times above and this is because I feel strongly about this hypocritical display.
Anyway, this is a psychologically corrugated society. Yesterday’s hypocrites will become tomorrow’s icons. I am absolutely sure that as the months and years roll on, we will see the GHRA, the Transparency Institute and those 60 civil society groups starring in the news.