They came to see the rubble!
Jul 14, 2017 , http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....e-to-see-the-rubble/
The government’s public relations, including that of the President, handled the jailbreak conflagration with typical incompetence. The poor PR was overshadowed only by the tragedy of the destruction by the fire itself.
The APNU+AFC government is clearly of the belief that as long as it provided information about what the government is doing that this will help its image. It clearly does not comprehend the importance of public relations.
Every government needs to manage its image through effective public relations. Governments are not perfect. They do not always act perfectly. They make mistakes. In fact, they are prone to mistakes. They make blunders which can be politically disastrous. PR is also necessary in Guyana for a different reason. The country is divided politically. The government supporters are always likely to overlook its mistakes. But there are other constituents whose approval is needed by the government. This is where PR is necessary.
The APNU has made a tactical decision to split the portfolios of the Ministers from the AFC who were once the more powerful. The portfolio of the Minister of Public Security was degutted of the important responsibility of immigration. This was handed to an APNU Minister. The Prime Minister who was supposed to be responsible for information has found that he is handicapped because the Presidency itself has a major press division which handles the flow of information from the Office of the President in which, ironically, the Prime Minister is located.
A communications crisis therefore exists within the government because more than one agency holds responsibility. But communication is not PR as was evident last Sunday during the fire which razed the prisons.
During the disaster, we were told that the President summoned an emergency meeting which included the heads of the agencies responsible for responding to the problems at the problems. Now this meeting was being held when the fire was being fought. The people who should have been on the ground helping to bring order, were in fact in a high level meeting with the President. What more calamitous situation could exist?
The heads of the fire, police and military should have been outside of the prisons as should have been the Minister of Public Security. The President should have been out there getting first-hand information and issuing instructions.
In the old days, one of the first persons who used to be at the scene of major fires was the former Prime Minister of Guyana, Hamilton Green. He used to turn up in person to help direct operations. Under the PPP, President Jagdeo and Robeson Benn were always at the scene of major fires. Yet, here was a fire raging inside of the prisons and a major security crisis developing and the top Ministers of the government were at a meeting briefing the President at another location. Can you believe this nonsense that is taking place?
This was a PR disaster for the government. It conveyed a hands-off image, The President and the minister should have been at location providing support to the security services battling the fire and trying to control the prisoners. Their presence there would have provided assurances to a frightened population.
Go to the scene; get a first-hand look and then go to the war-room to plan.
To compound matters, the government, two days after the fire, decided to engage in a PR exercise. It was a most hopeless and incompetent PR exercise. The entire Cabinet visited the scene of the fire. What did they go there to do? To see rubble? They should have gone to Lusignan to sort out of the mess that was taking place there.
The images of the Cabinet at Lot 12 Camp Street tell its own tale. The Minister of Public Security painted a forlorn figure standing at the side while the Prime Minister and the Minister of State stood beside the President.
This is not the sort of imagery the public needed to see. It was humiliating to the Minister of Public Security who has since had to take action to host his own press conference to provide information and demonstrate that the government is taking steps to regain control.
The government sent the army in Buxton. This was a cheap political gimmick. No one expected the army to find anything. The army was doing a photo opportunity. This was another unmitigated PR disaster by the government.
PR is ‘big people’ work? It is not for a bunch of ‘little children’ running all over the place!
