HINDS’SIGHT: THE PPP and three news stories: are these people for real?

david hinds, guyana chronicle

Three news items caught my attention over the last 24 hours. The first was the reported meeting between the President and the Opposition Leader. It shows statesmanship on the part of Mr Granger in inviting Mr. Jagdeo for that exchange, The Opposition Leader is part of government and should always be engaged—I would urge that that be done statutorily. One of the deformities of our adopted Westminster system is the ridiculous extent to which the opposition is shut out of government. But that’s a discussion for another day.What caught my attention in the report of the meeting was the Opposition Leader’s declaration that the PPP may not be attending Thursday’s Roundtable on Social Cohesion. Read that “may” to mean that they would not be there. My goodness! Your opposite number has just reached out to you in the spirit of inclusivity and you use the occasion to announce that your party would not attend a meeting aimed at addressing national reconciliation. The PPP can’t be serious. This is the same PPP that in another news story calls for a “national debate” on the role of the state media. Well Well! Here is the party declining to be part of a national event on reconciliation and cohesion, but calling for a national debate on the role of the media. One can only conclude that the PPP has no interest in social cohesion. How sad! Many observers have over the years questioned whether the PPP has ever been serious about mending our country together as a diverse society with a common purpose. This latest refusal by the PPP to engage in the roundtable feeds that suspicion. According to the media report, Mr. Jagdeo did not give any reason for the PPP’s non-attendance. The country awaits the reason or reasons. My own view is that this is part of the wider PPP praxis of disengagement and destabilisation that is bound to have a negative effect on the political process. But let’s get back to the request for a national debate on the role of the State media. Clearly by public debate Mr. Rohee means that the PPP should be involved. Of course, there should be such a discussion—there should always be such a discussion and the PPP should always be part of that discussion. But I have to ask—where were Mr. Rohee and the PPP for 23 long years? This group held power all these years and never thought it fit to have such a discussion or to include the then opposition in any meaningful way in the discussion of national issues. Do they only know of democracy when in opposition? The answer is a resounding YES. In a rather clumsy way, by schooling the government on how to govern democratically, the PPP is admitting to its own undemocratic governance Then we come to another PPP shocker. The party has written to the newspapers complaining about insufficient coverage of the party’s press releases. Fair enough. A party has a right to make such complaints. And I have to say that our news entities tend to be discriminatory in what they deem to be news. And in the process all parties suffer. I have had cause on several occasions to write to our newspapers to complain about such discrimination. So the PPP is in order. But this is the aspect of the PPP’s complaint that is unbelievable to sane people. The PPP is quoted as saying that of the 30 press releases it issued over a two-month period, “the Guyana Times carried 19, the Guyana Chronicle carried 10, the Kaieteur News carried eight and the Stabroek News carried seven.” The Guyana Times is expected to carry that many; that paper is the PPP’s mouthpiece. I am surprised that they did not carry all. The Chronicle carried 10, which may be too few. But this is the PPP we are talking about. I would bet that when that party was in power, the Chronicle did not carry 10 PNC or AFC or WPA press releases in 10 months. Insofar as the Chronicle was permitted to carry anything about those parties, they were opinions that attacked them in the meanest ways. I am arguing that, the fact that the Chronicle carried one-third of the PPP’s press releases in a two-month period is a reflection of a revolution in the State media. Mr. Rohee and the PPP should be congratulating the Chronicle rather than criticising it. They say that politics is a game; that politicians are shameless. This PPP is giving strong credence to that formulation by the day. As the young people would ask—are these people for real? Dr. David Hinds is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University. More of his writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com. Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com