The controversial approval of radio and television licences under the Bharrat Jagdeo administration would be reexamined and where possible reversed, according to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who says government intends to reform the process as part of a wider effort to transform the country’s information sector.
“We will reorganise and we will also rework the spectrum for television and radio licences and we will reexamine and where necessary reverse the illegal granting of television and radio licences to the relatives, cronies and friends of the one who stood up here and tried to lecture to us,” Nagamootoo told the National Assembly early Saturday morning while making his contributions to this year’s budget debate.
Despite many applications on file, including some from well-established media houses, Jagdeo approved of 10 radio licences just days before the November 28th polls in 2011 and also assented to the Bill to establish the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA), which is responsible for assessing and approving applications for radio licences.
Meanwhile, likening Jagdeo to a “Coolie Bully,” Nagamootoo told the National Assembly that opposition leader had showed his true colours during his presentation on the budget, after which he had led a walkout of the opposition
“Tonight we have seen the bluster, the pomposity, the arrogance and above all the love of power and so it was the usual buse down cuss down mood from the honourable member Bharrat Jagdeo,” he said moments after Jagdeo left.
The “Coolie Bully” term was attributed to Joey Jagan, the son of the late president Dr. Cheddi Jagan. When Nagamootoo referred to the younger Jagan as “an authentic Jagan,” the other government MPs laughed.
He told the House that Jagdeo has friends of questionable characters who are now in jail. As he called names, his fellow government MPs heckled “criminals.” As he called the names of Roger Khan, Ed Ahmad and Sonny Ramdeo, the MPs all shouted “jail.”
He also said that no one from the opposition had offered a word of support for Guyana’s sovereignty in face of the ongoing controversy with Venezuela over its maritime boundaries. “It saddens me that those who claim to love our country could come here and criticise our government and our president for saying that this is an unjust claim… that there are no legalities to the claim… for saying that we refuse to talk when the record [would show] we have said we want bilateral talks with the government of Venezuela on matters of mutual interest but we are not talking about border because our border has been settled by law,” he said.
Addressing comments by the opposition that government was practising “ethnic cleansing,” through various dismissals in the public service, Nagamootoo said, “It is something very painful… I am sick and tired to see people, knowing the history that Walter Rodney had written…sick and tired of hearing people of European ancestry blaming black people for everything. That is what it amounts to, an assault on Afro-Guyanese.” He said that what is being peddled was that Africans were getting rid of people of other races. “For me, that is odious, for me that is trying to turn history on its head or throwing history into the septic tank,” he said, while adding that no evidence of this claim could be found in Guyana.
He said that there are employees of Indian descent from the former administration who still have their jobs. He even spoke of at least one PPP candidate in the last election who is still working in the Office of the President. “There are other examples but just to show how mischievous, malicious and wicked is this charge of ethnic cleansing,” he said.
Nagamootoo also said that he has decided that the public information service should be professionalised. “To bring in new modules for public information, where journalists working in the public media must be required to exhibit only one quality—that is, professionalism—while recognising the fact that they are serving the government of the day not party a party interest,” he said.
He added that reorganising the media will require a lot of money.
