Dear Editor,
It is evident from your article ‘Reporters the “new opposition” – Jagdeo,’ the President has some serious reservations about the media and its rise as an opposition party and a political force. Now, some of the media industry may be some of the things brandished by the President, but I cannot expect that the President wants us to truly believe that the majority of the media is exactly the dastardly, conniving and mischievous entity of his rantings and imagination. I suspect these views certainly do not apply to the Guyana Chronicle or the Mirror or any of those very apolitical news outlets that happen to objectively sing the praises of the government with unabashed fervour.
The “new opposition” is exactly the kind of description the media in Guyana and in any third world nation with its usual shenanigans should be proud of. It is exactly the kind of tag that the media in any nation with a lame political opposition should celebrate. Isn’t this the watershed moment that the government sought when it ascended the throne of democracy in 1992 − a powerful media? The interests of the people of Guyana would be better served with a dogged, fearless and truth-seeking media on the right side of being a righteous pain-in-the-derrière rather than one that possesses a fascinating inclination to agreement with the executive. Maybe it is time for the media to write ballads of adulation for the President for reminding the nation of the media’s vital place in a free state and in maintaining a free state.
Your faithfully,
Michael Maxwell