Disinformation campaign

Destroying Guyana

In our column recently, we carried, a blurb on the Muckraker’s badmouthing of the signing of the contract for the construction of the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project (AFHEP). It followed a story on their total fabrication about a primary school in Moleson Creek. The Muckraker felt it necessary to carry a foreign piece claiming that the construction company China Railway First Group (CFRG) was not reliable because a section of a bridge it had constructed in China had collapsed.
We’d called the story ‘slanted’ because it implied the government was dealing with some fly-by-night company that had a poor track record.
What we didn’t know then was that the Muckraker’s slanted story had already been proven wrong by CFRG and this information was in the public domain!! Just like the primary school one where they’d already made the false claim.
But as we said, the Muckraker will do whatever it takes to “blame the government” and paint it in a negative light. A few days ago, it again played the same game by claiming the Pakistani Cabinet had asked for a contract to the company by its Railways Board to be checked by them. The contract hadn’t been subjected to a tender process. And here again the Muckraker refused to do some basic research.
They’d have found that both Russia and China are competing for a megabillion deal to build a hydro electric facility in Pakistan – without an international bid component! Pakistan is playing one against the other and the railway re-check is part of an intricate dance! But what is most astounding and displays a level of journalistic irresponsibility that knows no limit is that at the end of the second inflammatory article implying that the government has something up its sleeves with China Railways, the Muckraker admits that it lied with its first story on the ‘collapsed’ ramp to the bridge “built” by the company!
But look how shamelessly the Muckraker does this without any apologies: “CFRG said that the collapsed ramp was not under the same contract as the Yangmingtan Bridge which was undertaken by Co., Ltd., and the information has since been verified in the media”. But while the Muckraker vilifies the government and its projects, it’s doing incalculable harm to Guyana’s development drive. Businesses will not invest in a country where they are labelled as thieves and vagabonds. All of this, of course, is in addition to the Muckraker’s sustained campaign to paint Guyana as a crime-infested land.

Vendetta
We have to once again point out the vicious vendetta waged by the WICB and its departing CEO Ernest Hillaire against Ramnaresh Sarwan to destroy the career of that talented batsman.
As we reported, Sarwan won T& T $ 1,000,000 in damages because of Hillaire’s claim that he was “unfit”. Sarwan won the arbitration, but Hillaire just wouldn’t admit he was in the wrong. In a backstabbing and underhanded manner, he had the WICB issue a statement asserting they never did anything wrong! They simply didn’t want to create more ruckus in our cricketing affairs, so they “allowed” the arbitration against them! Did you ever hear such a piece of crock? Sarwan has proven his fitness many times over in the most demanding English county cricket circuit. At a time when most of the fellas picked for the WI ahead of him couldn’t even get into double figures, he was knocking off hundreds just a few miles away – under the same conditions.
There’s still time to have Sarwan back now that Hillaire will be gone.
Picket!!! Under fire Kissoon wonders why trained, “educated” police commanders don’t play by the Marquis of Queensbury Rules, once in the field. Maybe because they’re dealing with hardened toughs who have no compunction in gunning down policemen? And have murdered dozens in the past few years.