Stabroek
News' editorials push the opposition's line
Monday, May 24th 2004
Dear Editor,
The Stabroek News has become the
opposition's chief whip. On January 12, 2004 the
Stabroek News in an editorial entitled, "Boiling
Point," called for the government of Guyana
to have the death squad allegations placed in front of
the Disciplined Services Com-mission. The editorial
bubbled over in support of the capacity of a local
democratic institution, such as the Disciplined
Services Com-mission, to resolve the death squad
allegations. Five months after, it has reversed itself
and now finds itself as a torch-bearer in the
opposition's camp.
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Stabroek News was never a neutral
observer when it came to the death squad allegations.
As this year unfolded, the Stabroek News found itself
directing the opposition's crusade against the
government.
The Stabroek News offered a lifeline
to the opposition to keep this flagging issue alive.
Its editorials on this issue soon began to mirror -
some may say even direct - the opposition's campaign
against the Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj.
The Stabroek News pursued a relentless
campaign to malign the government and fabricate a
criminal association between the Minister of Home
Affairs and the so-called phantom squad. Almost on a
daily basis, since George Bacchus's rhapsodic
revelations, the Stabroek News left few stones
unturned in its quest to have the government indicted
for state-sponsored terrorism. Editorial
inconsistency, however, cannot be hidden easily.
Stabroek News, for example, began to
change its position on many issues, notably on the
Haitian question. Like a finless fish, the Stabroek
News has also drifted with the tide as regards its
editorial position on the death squad issue. Helpless
and unable to steer its own path, it clung desperately
to the deadwood provided by the combined opposition's
stance on the issue.
The Stabroek News editorial of Sunday
May 16 therefore came as no surprise. It read like a
précis of the joint statement issued by the
opposition in reaction to the appointment of a
presidential commission of enquiry into the death
squad allegations. Not only is the Stabroek News'
editorial position in absolute and total unison with
the opposition, that newspaper has now lost all
confidence in the capacity of local democratic
institutions to conduct the enquiry. In an editorial
of Monday May 17, 2004 entitled, "America and the
images" it holds up the bipartisanship of the US
Congress as a model for our own legislature. Why is
the Stabroek News so infatuated by the bipartisan
response of the US Congress to the Iraq abuse scandal?
The Stabroek News cannot be so easily
fooled. It must by now be aware that neither the
American system of checks and balances or its
bi-partisan Congress has ever stopped state-sponsored
torture, both as a foreign policy
instrument and as extensively practiced in penal
institutions within the United States of America. In
the words of Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair,
torture is as American as apple pie. They point to the
public rebuke of America by the United Nations in 2000
for its record in preventing torture and other
degrading forms of punishment. So why did the Stabroek
News laud this system of checks and balances and
bipartisanship? The nexus to the drifting position of
the newspaper's editorials cannot be missed.
The Stabroek News is advancing the
cause of bipartisanship to support its natural ally,
the political opposition in Guyana, which has rejected
the Presidential Commission of Enquiry because it was
constituted without their input. What better way to
promote the new opposition demand that it has to be
consulted in the appointment of the members of the
commission than to point to the virtues of
bipartisanship within the US Congress.
Yours faithfully,
Alana Johnson
Should
this informant be believed?
Thursday, January 15th 2004
Dear Editor,
A criminal, with his own personal
motivations, alleges that the Minister of Home Affairs
has been involved in the killings of several persons
over a period of time. This same criminal claims that
he was involved in the killing gang, but had a
falling-out.
The Minister of Home Affairs in an
impromptu statement stated categorically that when a
criminal's 'back is against the wall', he will do
anything to save himself - a little lie is
insignificant to that criminal. The lengths that he
would go to save himself are unlimited. If he has to
say that a high priest also played a role in killings,
he will do so. So without evidence, whom would
responsible persons believe? How feasible is it to
believe a criminal as against a Minister of
Government? Tomorrow, we might find that another
criminal who wants asylum because of a disagreement
with his colleagues, decides to say that some high
Government official or even a member of the opposition
is involved with Saddam Hussein. Is our society so
gullible that we tend to believe all that we hear?
Yours faithfully,
Rebecca Brown
Many
of the killings were due to criminals, not the Phantom
Wednesday, January 21st 2004
Dear Editor,
The PNC/R is relying on very flimsy
evidence to try to build a case on their allegations
of "state-sponsored" terrorism. There
is no way they can try to make such an allegation
based on the killings of, as they say, the last 14-24
months. Are they trying to tell us that all the
killings in and around Buxton from February 2002 when
passengers in minibuses and other vehicles passing
through Buxton were robbed and several killed were all
a part of "state-terrorism"?
Such an allegation is totally ridiculous and cannot be
supported. It looks like what the PNC/R is trying to
do is to cover their tracks and their record over this
period of time, when they were accused of being
closely associated with the violence and try to
deflect the blame on to the government, by creating
confusion in the minds of people. They will not
succeed in their attempt to tarnish the Government.
Yours faithfully,
Malcolm
Alli
I
prefer the Phantoms to the criminals
Wednesday, January 21st 2004
Dear Editor,
I've heard the call from certain
sectors of our society calling for an investigation of
the so called "Phantom" group and for
the dismantling and possible imprisonment of its
members.
The last time such a call was made was
in connection with the Quick Reaction Group of the
Guyana Police Force, but history recalls that as soon
as the Quick Reaction Squad was dismantled, every
petty criminal and gun toting murderer came out of
their holes and created havoc on the lives of ordinary
Guyanese. Robbery, kidnapping and murder became a way
of life in Guyana with the majority of us on the
receiving end of this horrible period.
Can the PNC, WPA and ACDA give us the
assurance that once the "Phantoms" are
retired, those vicious cut-throats and AK47 killers
who once controlled Bux-ton and who are now in hiding
thanks to the "Phantoms" will not suddenly
return and restart their reign of terror since we all
know that the Police and the Army are incapable of
dealing with these killers.
AK47 weapon
For me the choice is easy, it's either
the Phantoms or the AK47 killers from Buxton, as
for the Police and the Army, I see them in their
present state as a waste of national funds.
Yours faithfully,
Bryan
Mackintosh