Dear Editor,
Once again, it was left to the sometimes lone rapid response critic Frederick Kissoon, and later David Hinds on Channels 9 and 6 to respond to another egregious display of arrogance from the ex-President of the Republic at his press conference on Wednesday. Many looked with dismay as without a hint of the humility befitting one demitting office, he plunged into wild and unsubstantiated attacks on the opposition parties and citizens.
He said: “We plan to take the toughest actions against anyone, here at home and internationally, who try to mobilize people to create violence, whether it’s the media, whether it’s the websites, whether it’s sending people text messages or whether it is party or public officials.“ He said that text messages containing false information indicated they were sent on behalf of APNU. This arrogance flies in the face of the fact, as recorded by EAB, the press and opposition forces, that the people doing the attacking on Election Day were people from his own party and government.
There was hardly an incident where the opposition disrupted the conduct of the elections. In fact, according to the logic of his own recorded disgust with Gecom, the citizens had every right to be concerned with the conduct of the poll.
Perhaps the only thing that exceeded the now ex-President’s haughtiness at the press conference was the tameness of the assembled press corps in asking tough questions about the dubious content of most of the ex-President’s assertions.
While the elections are over the significance of that behaviour must not be dismissed lightly. It is a test and template of how far the country can move away from presidential and governmental arrogance that comes with full control of past parliaments by one political party and the concurrent complacency of foes whether in the media or opposition.
It was not a surprise that in the same week that the (former) President left office the Commonwealth observers noted the unfair advantage of the governing party over the media in the elections and that Transparency International reported that Guyana had edged closer to a “highly corrupt” profile.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Westmaas
