Thursday’s lockout of the media from the annual officer’s conference of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) was another in a series of ominous signs for the fourth estate epitomized by the government’s assault on press freedom via the withdrawal of state advertisements from this newspaper.
In this case, however, the offence extends far beyond the media and envelops the unwritten good governance contract between the administration and the people.
Leaving that aside for the moment, the handling of the media at this event by both the Office of the President (OP) and the GDF betrayed extraordinarily bad manners and callous disrespect. Both OP and the GDF had extended invitations for full coverage of the opening session of the conference as had become customary. On turning up, the media were told that they would only be permitted a photo opportunity. There was no explanation for this about face and no assurance that the media would be invited to some other session or a press conference on the results of this important conference. The journalists were simply shooed out of the compound like errant cattle.
For too long the media in this country has allowed itself to be treated as lapdogs by institutions like the GDF. This, of course, is reflective of the state of the media in this country and the fact that it is deeply divided and roughly hewn into two camps: those who are trying to do a professional job and those who are hand maidens of the state and special interests.
One would have thought, however, that with changed and supposedly progressive leadership in the GDF it would have shown greater deftness in handling the problem. Clearly, the Office of the President had changed its mind about allowing the media into the conference. The onus was therefore on the GDF to transmit this changed situation in a manner that didn’t disrespect the media. It apparently had no idea how to do this and handled the matter very clumsily. The army can no longer now look forward to assured coverage of the gamut of events that it assiduously invites the media to. It now has to mend fences and as a first step it should meet with the Guyana Press Association.
Now to the nub of the matter. This army conference was highly anticipated because of several disturbing developments: the stalemate in the search for the AK 47s from the batch of 30 and the lack of a robust probe into this scandal, the continued indiscipline among the ranks of the GDF, the outrageous incursion into Guyana’s territory by the Venezuelan army, the alarming carving out of a huge airstrip in the Corentyne by drug traffickers, the recent disappearance of another AK 47 and a series of torture allegations by soldiers and others against the Military Criminal Investigation Department (MCID) of the GDF.
These were the issues that the media, other sectors of society and the public at large would have expected the President to address the officer’s conference on. These were the issues that the media would have been able to report on and enable a level of public discourse so vital in a democracy. These were the issues that the President and the GDF would have been held accountable on.
It goes without saying that potentially security-sensitive issues could arise in discussions between the President and the military but it is unlikely and unusual that these matters would be raised at a conference of this type. They are usually reserved for much smaller gatherings at the level of the Defence Board and caucuses between the President and the army high command. Moreover, it had become the custom that the media was allowed to covering the opening session as would be the normal practice in an open, democratic society
As a result of the lockout the average citizen is unaware of how the President addressed the serious issues facing the army and the public. Unfortunately, it was the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces himself who most shockingly dismissed the first question that was put to him at a press conference about the serious charges of torture allegedly carried out by a unit of the army. At a subsequent press conference he tried to repair the damage by saying that allegations of torture were being taken seriously by his administration but the incipient ambivalence leaves the public to reasonably ask what stance he took at the officer’s conference. Did he remonstrate with the hierarchy over these charges or did he paper it over? The ambivalence of the administration on the torture allegations had been fuelled earlier by the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Clement Rohee, who rubbished the question on torture by suggesting that Guyanese were more concerned with unpacking goodies from their Christmas barrels and enjoying the season. It was a most astonishing performance by the minister.
The PPP was often offended while in opposition by the PNC’s dismissals of important demands like counting at the place of poll as “logistical nightmares”. This government must be careful not to be similarly dismissive of concerns that affect important segments of society.
And the public also has an irreducible right to hear what the President told the officers about the 30 AK 47s that went missing two years ago and the other rifle that went astray recently. Indeed, the alacrity with which the President summoned a press conference to unveil a probe into the PNC era weapons has befuddled all and sundry. How come the President and the government didn’t immediately commission an investigation into the missing 30 AK 47s but now want an exhaustive probe into something that happened 30 years ago and for which the trail would have long turned cold? It must be another episode in the unproductive and debilitating politics that is nurtured by the hardliners in these two parties.
The army’s posture which might have led to the Venezuelan aggression and the large-scale operations of drug traffickers in the Corentyne also attracted much public interest. What may now surface is a sterile, skewed recount of what transpired courtesy of the Government Information Agency. That just won’t do. Whoever advised the government to lock out the media should be sent packing immediately. Unfortunately, the advice seems to be part of a well-established pattern to try to hobble the media and to manage the information put in the public domain. That won’t do either and is bound to fail ignominiously.