We have had Mao’s Little Red Book, Gadaffi’s Little Green Book, and metaphorically speaking, the Little Black Book. In terms of local presidential preferences Janet Jagan favoured the Little Lenin Books, but now she has been superseded by President Granger with his own chosen “little book”: the Pocket Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus.
This revelation emerged during remarks made by the President at the annual media brunch hosted at State House last Sunday, a transcript of which was released by the Ministry of the Presidency. This year the Guyana Press Association celebrates its 75th anniversary, and the Head of State said he would assist the association in publishing a history of the press in Guyana. The work is being authored by him, and he identified five phases of the evolution of the media in this country.
Adverting to work the GPA President is doing on the subject, the President said he would see if that maybe could be added to what he has written. Certainly a comprehensive history of the press here is long overdue, and historians and the journalistic fraternity in particular look forward to its publication. “It is here more or less … so it will be out sooner rather than later,” Mr Granger was quoted as saying.
But then the President moved into more problematic territory, telling his audience that although the Minister of Finance had been unable to introduce a budget for 2020, he was still prepared “to make an annual subvention to the Guyana Press Association coming from my funds called the National Endowment For Science and Technology (NEST) to assist the Guyana Press Association without any interference from me or the government to conduct training in the course of 2020.”
Once again the electorate can only marvel that the President appears so blissfully unaware that he is operating in a caretaker capacity, and even if he is convinced in the depths of his very soul that he will win the March 2 election, under the constitution he simply cannot make public spending commitments for the next two months, let alone past that date. Where the latter is concerned, he has to wait and see whether the voters confirm his implied prophecy of the outcome – or not, as the case may be.
But he was not to be deflected from the matter of his “little book”. It was the press association which he had in his sights after its comments on his statement that fairness in reporting should be taken into consideration in the allocation of state advertisements. This arose in the context of the Department of Public Information’s decision to reduce dramatically the quantum of ads allocated to Stabroek News, apportioning none at all for the month of October, for example. This newspaper had itself said that the decision had come about because of its criticism of government actions following the vote of no confidence in December 2018, while the GPA’s position was that it appeared the President was linking the granting of state advertisements with favourable coverage of his administration.
It seems the Head of State was incensed by this and the Ministry of the Presidency then accused the association of misrepresenting what the President had said, demanding a retraction and apology. The press body declined to do so, and stood by its statement.
Whether the President thought that the distribution of a commemorative coin and lapel pins to mark the association’s diamond anniversary would assuage sensitivities when at the brunch he treated Ms Raghubir like a schoolchild and lectured her as a schoolteacher might, cannot be said. Whatever the case, he proceeded to inform his guests that he had brought along “this Pocket Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus … and well, I just opened it at ‘F’ – fair: treating people equally; equitable, honest, impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced, neutral, even-handed. Can you imagine? When somebody speaks of fairness they are speaking about impartiality, unbiased, unprejudiced, neutral, even-handed … I would urge that before we issue statements, we check with this little book – I will leave it with Nazima – and see what fair means. I would urge that your statements in future be guided by accurate representation of the words of the President.”
This is more than a question of semantics. President Granger is too sophisticated a writer not to know that firstly, English is a contextual language, and secondly, how you describe what you are doing does not necessarily reflect the reality. Actions can belie words, and in this case they certainly do. To give one example, if the Head of State turned to ‘E’ in his little book, he would find the word ‘euphemism’. What does ‘fair’ really mean when state ads paid for by taxpayers are withheld from a leading newspaper in defiance of the Declaration of Chapúltepec because the government doesn’t like its content?
But the President didn’t stop there. He went on to say, “On the other hand, on the same page you have ‘fake’. ‘Fair and ‘fake’. Fake: counterfeit, forged, fraudulent, sham, pirated, false, bogus.” Now this is interesting. Last month the state newspaper reported Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo as saying on Benschop Radio’s ‘Straight Up’ programme, that SN’s complaints were part of a political campaign as Guyana headed into elections. He then proceeded to itemise the claims as being untrue, insisting the newspaper had been benefiting from millions in state advertisements even after its complaints began. He disputed that the government did not place any ads in October, and said that it was Stabroek News which decided to stop printing state advertisements after citing non-payment.
If the President homed in on ‘fairness’ as the operating principle in the distribution of state ads, his Prime Minister was reported as saying it was a matter of ‘rationalisation’, and that a larger number of media outlets were now being given ads, so that this newspaper was receiving a smaller share of the “pie”. How the two positions are reconciled, has not yet been disclosed to the public.
Mr Nagamootoo’s misrepresentations (relayed by other state actors) have been responded to by SN on several previous occasions and will not be reiterated here, other than to observe there was hardly a correct fact contained in what he was reported as telling the station. One can only observe that President Granger’s exhortation to the GPA President to look up ‘Fake’ when she receives the “little book” was misdirected. It is his Prime Minister who is most in need of a copy.
