Dear Editor,
In response to your news item, ‘Linden businessmen to press for broadcast licence,’ (December 22), I would like to commend the two Linden businessmen, Messrs Norman Chapman and Mortimer Yearwood, for daring to stand up for their constitutional right to not only operate a radio station, but also operate a place of employment. For government to be engaged as an employer and operator in the radio/tv industry while blocking Guyanese from being operators and employers in the same field is blatant discrimination!
While it is true that a radio station serves primarily to provide information and entertainment, and the issue of who accesses information or who disseminates information may be at the core of the Chapman-Yearwood radio/tv licence case, we have to recognize that this matter is more than just about information.
This matter is also about employment. And since the constitution does have a clause that specifically stipulates it is the right of every Guyanese to create employment opportunities or to be gainfully employed, it is a violation of our constitutional right for the PPP government and the opposition PNC to deny, via delaying tactics, our rights to create employment opportunities through operating independent radio/tv stations.
As I hinted above, the PPP government and opposition PNC are basically denying Guyanese the right to own radio stations and this may be because the two cannot agree to the wording of legislation to govern the telecommunications sector, but more specifically, the issuance of radio/tv licences. What is ironic, however, is that this happens to be a pattern of governance from both parties as they put their narrow partisan interests ahead of the people’s; except that this time around two brave souls said ‘enough is enough,’ asked the court to step in and here we are waiting for the next move.
No one seems to know what the next move might be, since the government has threatened to appeal the acting Chief Justice’s ruling and the acting Chief Justice basically has lobbed the ball back into the government’s court. But since sixteen years have elapsed following the PPP’s return to power in 1992 under the self-deceived banner of ushering in the return of democracy, it would have been good if the court had given the government an ultimatum of between thirty and 90 days in which to issue the first independent radio licence or show just cause.
The reason for this ultimatum is because one has to ask what the court would do if the government does not issue a radio licence in the next twelve months. At present, the matter is more open-ended than closed, and what the plaintiffs seek is some form of closure to their petition!
For the government to argue that there is no broadcast legislation hence its inability to issue radio/tv licences will continue to constitute a violation of the people’s constitutional right, and for the Attorney-General to pledge his challenge to the court’s ruling shows the degree of contempt this government has for both the court and the people of Guyana. It is shocking! It is deplorable! It is disgraceful!
The PPP government is a people’s government? I think not!
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
