Dear Editor,
When I was accused by an associate, who once provided me with pictures for the PPP’s 1992 and 1997 elections campaigns, that the PPP had bought me because I had commented on the Moseley ban, I was so upset I called Kit Nascimento, the one person who knows me better than anyone, apart from my family, and asked him if he thinks that I am purchasable.
Kit immediately responded: “Not even I could buy you.”
Joking aside, Kit and I share an incongruous friendship. He is practical and pragmatic and I am impractical and idealistic; but as an inexplicable human being I think I intrigue him the way a schoolboy is intrigued by a queer insect.
Kit and Laxhmie Kallicharran took me under their wings because I was once very naïve and gullible. I also held steadfast to my convictions regardless of the consequences. As media czar and second to the head-of-state Kit offered me executive positions, which I turned down because I was not comfortable with the equation, despite my then very penurious circumstances. I know the gentlemanly Kit remained my friend regardless.
He was upset with me for months when I walked away from a job as Marketing Manager of Courts to work for almost zilch on PR for Dr Jagan and the PPP government, although I had to single-handedly provide for a daughter in QC, a son pursuing an engineering degree, and a husband in prison on a murder charge.
My two friends thought I was beyond redemption when I found a wallet stuffed with enough US currency to comfortably support my family for a year and handed it to a guard at a nearby facility in the event the owner returned. The guard disappeared with the man’s wallet.
I have refused jobs I was not comfortable with, when my pockets and kitchen were empty, and currently work with an NGO under a boss whom I respect totally.
When I am at an abyss God send angels to protect me, so I have never felt the need to sell my moral or professional integrity.
I defended the right of the President to deny Mr Moseley access to his private space until he apologized for his disrespect, not because I have friends in the PPP, or have found favour with the government, but because I have always believed in doing the ethical thing regardless of the cost. Truth is a given and cannot be bought.
Guyana is at a crossroads where its economic future is imperilled by the EPA being imposed on Cariforum The price of fuel is spiralling out of control, with all its attendant dynamics. There is a threat to global food security. There is the issue of climate change – all of which and more, the President has been contending with on behalf of the Guyanese people.
From 90-odd per cent Guyana’s foreign debt has been reduced, through the intervention of former President Cheddi Jagan and President Jagdeo, to four per cent.
Guyana’s President has created blueprints – nationally, regionally, and internationally to deal with these issues. The glory is reflected on Guyana and Guyanese. Then an inconsequential upstart sought to imperil the thrust and the momentum of these interventions by focusing media attention on his wild accusations against the President, using the most provocative language.
The Guyana Press Association, which should be the watchdog for ethical behaviour in the media corps, encouraged this lawless and reprehensible behaviour, instead of encouraging Mr Moseley to apologise for degrading the once-impeccable standards of journalism in Guyana, while simultaneously degrading the image of our country and the dignity of the office of Guyana’s head-of-state.
My respected colleague, indisputably one of the finest brains in the profession, and a professed champion of press freedom, contended that Mr Moseley is inconsequential, but my defending the ban indicated that I had been purchased, thereby denying me the very freedoms he advocates, on the basis that I should not have supported the President’s ban on Mr Moseley.
I am known for my passionate loyalties, which are not dependent on reciprocity or payments in cash or kind. I make no apology for my loyalty to my country, and I have never sought rewards from anyone for doing the right thing. Dr Jagan was the father of my heart and soul. The welfare of this nation was encapsulated in his spirit and, by extension, in the machinery he instituted. Ask Moses Nagamootoo why he cannot walk away from this machinery.
Yours faithfully,
Parvati Persaud-Edwards
