Dear Editor,
Last week had its share of surprises. There was Vincent Alexander with his ‘revelations.’ It was not a particularly stunning development for those privy to this limited public secret since December 2011. Then came Christopher Ram and his withdrawal from Stabroek News ‘Business Page.’ This one was surprising, if not shocking. The underlying circumstances (as gleaned from public writings) prompting Mr Ram’s withdrawal are troubling, to say the least.
When a man of Mr Ram’s professional calibre walks away from a twenty-year relationship, then it is discomfitting, no matter how nuanced. Either by Mr Ram or by SN.
When he walks, then those yearning for truth and facts and the sanitizing light of day lose. We falter, walk slower, and grope blindly. This accrues to the benefit and glee of the political and social masters who frolic in the murkiness of secret under-the-table deals, and backdoor arrangements, through which they prosper. The nation is first dismembered, then doled out in parts.
While I have some philosophical and structural differences with Mr Ram, he must be recognized as being the closest, if not the only, source of investigative journalism and forensic inquiry in this hazy wretched state.
Now he is gone with his balance sheet, leaving us tottering somewhat unsteadily; he has capped his revealing pen, thus presenting us with a national page of blankness.
Now what about the other half of this suddenly unrighteous brotherhood? What can be said about Stabroek News in this sorry affair? I will try to be kind; I share the Scriptural.
It is said that no one can serve two masters. Let me say this more clearly: If one is a crusader for truth and what is just, then all other considerations are secondary, must be banished. To be brutally candid, SN did not demonstrate this standard in this instance.
It sought not to expose Peter, but coddled him. It went so far as to condone, even deny, egregious failure. In SN’s book (and that of its advisers) there is no betrayal. From all appearances, business as usual. Now I know pornography when I see it, and when I hear it. There is pornography here.
For its part, SN is left to share, with the jaded and dwindling band of those who still care, the answer to one question: It is not who is the greatest amongst us. But what is greatest (what matters most) in this garden of deception and all that is wrong?
I salute Mr Ram for his efforts, and now for his stand.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
