The people at Kaieteur News would not do that for me
Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
February 6, 2007
Certainly, as you grow older, there are lessons you must have learned about life. Only a moron goes through life without understanding the elementary principles that govern human relationships. If any unwritten rule should be internalized it is the one that instructs you not to glow in the misfortune of others. One day, bad luck will come your way and you will need a helping hand.
For this reason, I found Robert Persaud's declaration that since he was not present then he couldn't comment when Joey Jagan announced at a public function at the Hotel Tower that he would slap me for my exposure of his father's political faults, a very foolish statement to make.
If this is the man the PPP is grooming to be its next Presidential candidate, then it had better send Persaud on an intensive 10-year course in philosophy. Should those who weren't present remain silent when anti-government extremists threaten to attack ministers of the government?
If a government gets vindictive with someone you do not like, you may find comfort in that person's destruction. But life's logics are complex and sometimes follow no given path and pattern.
It is always best to adhere to principles and look at the larger picture rather than personalities. People with power operate with a mental structure that ordinary folks will never understand.
Don't try to understand people with power. Just keep away from them. It is for this reason, I would strongly urge business people to protect their investments by having a correct relation with the government of the day, but never let that relationship turn into intimacy.
People with power have special cravings that do not allow for permanent friendships. I have seen in this country over my entire life how governments have hurt people that were once their chummy pals. It can start with a serious disagreement or just a simply petty incident and things begin to slide from thereon. Businessmen and media functionaries should maintain a diplomatic distance from the corridors of power in any society. Governments' requests for help from these two sectors are insatiable.
Once you are generous to the ruling party, it will want more and more and more. One day, your spouse or children may say enough is enough and that is when the bricks will come down on you.
Deep inside my heart I exhort my colleagues in the media - do not put your brain in the service of the ruling party or the government in whichever country you work. The two do not mix – it is a deadly Molotov cocktail. The corridors of power need the media just as the plants need sunlight. The inherent problem in such a situation is that the media by nature cannot have friends.
As a media functionary do not sin your soul for anyone; it may come back to haunt you. One day, I may leave this newspaper because I stood my ground. One day, I may be asked to leave. One day, I may need help from someone that I unjustifiably attacked. We can hardly predict what lies in store for us. Unfortunately, the Guyanese society is replete with people whose principles are convenient tools.
When the controversy between GINA and the Stabroek News erupted my position was unambiguous. I could not support GINA's decision. It made no sense in the light of the placements the defunct Mirror newspaper gets from the state. Having stated my position, I was honest enough to display my feeling of nonchalance because I knew from bitter experience that the Stabroek News, because of the monopoly it once had in this country, had turned its back on the essential tenets of press freedom.
My affirmation is that GINA should withdraw its policy of not placing advertisements of the ministries with the Stabroek, but I will not pursue an in-depth analysis of the GINA-Stabroek confrontation because the Stabroek News must as a matter of urgency adopt an unshakeable, principled position of professional journalism.
I would advise all organizations and individuals in this country and all media houses in the Caribbean that have embraced the cause of the Stabroek News in its quarrel with the Guyana Government that it should demand that Stabroek look at its modus operandi as a major news organization in Guyana.
Earlier above, I made reference to people in this country whose resort to principles is a convenient one. The letters of US-based, Guyanese Robin Williams contribute meaningfully to the debate about Guyana 's future but his last letter has left me disappointed with him. Of course he is not the only one that does what I will accuse him of doing in the paragraphs below.
He complained that the Stabroek News got what it deserved because the Stabroek News's meaning of press freedom is not an ethically based one. Mr. Williams cited many instances where SN's concept of press freedom was skewed. He laments that many of his letters were not published because their contents were not to the liking of Stabroek. But where were Mr. Williams and so many like him when the writers of this newspaper complained of unprofessional attacks on it by SN. No one came out in support of us.
The Stabroek was violently derogatory to this newspaper when it twice made the judgment that this paper pays people to get information that is not in the public domain. It was an abominable thing to say coming from a newspaper that is also privy to confidential information.
Let me end with a shameless piece of unbecoming conduct on the part of the editor-in-chief of SN.
I had an exchange of letters in the SN and KN with Kit Nascimento. At the bottom of my last publication, there appeared a reply by Mr. Nascimento. The paper actually showed Nascimento my missive and allowed him to reply at the bottom of it rather than doing the principled thing and asking Nascimento to pen a separate correspondence.
All the senior editors and the publisher at Kaieteur are my personal friends. Yet they would never allow me to pen a response at the end of someone's letter. I wouldn't ask them for that privilege and if I do, they wouldn't give it to me. I hope those that are sympathetic to the cause of Stabroek offer a response to what I have just described. Knowing Guyanese, I doubt it.