Honour and country

The good book does say that a man is not recognised in his own country. After all, the natives remember when he used to walk barefoot among them. But when it comes to former President Bharrat Jagdeo not only does the Opposition media refuse to recognise his accomplishments but they go out of their way to do what the Americans call, “a hatchet job” on his reputation.

Take the Stabroek News’ editorial of January 5, “Observers”, which purported to comment on Jagdeo being appointed Head of the Commonwealth Team of Observers to Sri Lanka’s general elections, being held today (Thursday).

While it is accepted that there will be a certain amount of partisanship in politics commentary domestically, one would have hoped that Stabroek News would at least have acknowledged the honour that was being bestowed on the entire country of Guyana, through the selection of Mr Jagdeo. However the Stabroek News chose to declare conclusively, and snarkily, that “a large number of persons in Guyana would deem Mr Jagdeo unsuitable for this mission.” This is sophistry at its basest.

The question is, which leader – from what their columnist Henry Jeffrey calls a “bi-communal” society – would not be deemed “unsuitable” for even being a “dog catcher” by a “large number of persons” from the “other side”?? What exactly was the point that Stabroek News was attempting to make, apart from sheer wickedness?

The newspaper shoots itself in the foot again, when it claimed that because Dr Jagdeo’s successor, President Ramotar had “questioned the outcome of the 2011 polls without providing any evidence of wrongdoing” the former President’s “credibility as mission head could be under some pressure”.

Stabroek News is really reaching with this claim. Firstly, President Ramotar did in fact produce a welter of fact-based proof – including intimidation of PPP poling agents in South Georgetown and preventing authorised persons from witnessing the vote count.

Discussions of these concerns at the Tripartite Talks with the leaders of APNU and AFC produced a consensus which led to the President deciding not to proceed with a demand for a forensic audit in the interest of peace and stability in the country. President Ramotar acted in the best interest of the country and denied himself an outright victory. But the Stabroek News would deny him even that.

To curry-favour with the Commonwealth, the Stabroek News unctuously complained that Mr Jagdeo had not “disassociated” himself from President Ramotar’s statement, which was in contrast to the silence of the Commonwealth Observers of the Guyana elections. We do not see what Mr Jagdeo has to do with President Ramotar’s statement, since, he, Jagdeo was not a member of the Commonwealth or any other Group of observers. In fact, the Commonwealth’s present choice of Jagdeo to lead their team at the very important Sri Lanka elections is a resounding vote of confidence in his impartiality in matters electoral.

But the lowest blow of all was some doublespeak from the Stabroek News that would have done Goebbels proud. It claimed innocuously enough that the Commonwealth’s Report on elections “produce a verdict on the quality of the governance of the elections being observed and whether they provide a basis for a fair result.” But the newspaper then astoundingly posits a “disjunction” between this verdict and Jagdeo’s “own poor Governance” of Guyana.

Apart for comparing apples and oranges, since when can “poor governance” describe securing the write-off of US$2.1 billion PNC’s debt, leading the state to fighting off an armed insurrection launched by the PNC and producing sustained economic growth that has led to Guyana graduating from being a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) to a Middle Income Country?

We remind the opposition media once again: when they adopt the vicious approach exemplified by the editorial “Observer”, they are simply cutting Guyana’s nose to spite its face. And to the rest of the world, we are all Guyanese.