It continues to amaze me how our President
Brarrat Jagdeo continues to be as popular as he is. Clearly we as journalists we
have not done our jobs properly in pointing out to the pubic the administrative
insanity of doing what he is doing, and getting away with it! .
Tonight I am going to try to rectify
that oversight.
First of all Jagdeo's popularity comes
from the fact that he is continually going around the country sharing out money
from the consolidated fund to buy this popularity, more than anything else this
is what is contributing to his popularity. Unfortunately a lot of the people
who are being bamboozled by this deception will not hear this commentary
tonight since they are the poorest ones living in the most remote areas. As to
the legality of what he is doing I leave that to the legal eagles but this I do
know, if people believe that all they have to do to solve the numerous problems
face daily, poor water supply, bad roads, flooding, poor drainage etc. all they
have to do is block up the road and burn a few tyres and he will come running
with his money bags, then he is creating dangerous precedents for you, since
these mini riots gets people hurt, the government and the investor community
since these disruptions are bad for business. Competent management and lack of
corruption would have prevented the need for such action in the first place,
but Jagdeo running in making promises which largely will not be kept and
breaking the law by allocating these monies without the consent of the
parliament is illegal, deceptive and reprehensible.
Since he became Minister of Finance
93-94 this President has been in charge of our economic wellbeing. During his
tenure as Minister of Finance up to today since after being made President in
1999 Jagdeo continued to be our de facto Minister of Finance he has lead this
country, which was experiencing an economic upturn and nearly 9% growth under
Hoyte's economic recovery programme, down the tubes to negative growth today.
The conclusion is clear despite all of his rhetoric Guyana has faced a reversal
of fortunes under his inexperienced, clumsy handling of the economy.
You will forgive me if it peeves me when
I see NCN telling the public that our wonderful, caring President was forced to
rush in and give them money so that we can see world cup football on TV, not
one member of the public has asked why this was necessary!
So let me ask it for you, what has
happened to our economic situation when we, the private broadcasters and the
local business community, lost the ability to buy the rights to these events;
soccer, Cricket etc., without having to resort to the maximum leader having to rush
in and put his hands in our pockets i.e. the consolidated fund to pay for them.
The problem is two fold and was caused by the incompetence of the PPP
Government and Jagdeo.
Part one of the equation has to do with
incompetence, Several times in the past I told you that sometimes hard
negotiations have to be conducted in these matters by men of strength and
stamina and not by wimps; on numerous occasions we the private broadcasters,
after being told the price of the rights cost of some event have said to the
rights holder, you want 60 thousand US dollars, we cannot afford it we can only
pay 20 thousand! Now for this to have effect the rights holder has to believe
you, and so you make the offer and hold to your position, even if the football
or the cricket starts, you hold your ground; on numerous occasions myself, Rex Mc
Kay and Jacob Rambarran have held our ground as to rights costs knowing that
the event would probably have to start and when the rights holder sees the
people in Guyana protesting because they are not seeing cricket or football and
that we are legitimately unable to pay the rights, they will accept the 20
thousand we offered, since according to my calculator 20 thousand dollars is
more than zip. But every time we did it the PPP rushed in and bought the
rights with your taxes to exclude us. And the reason is simple the PPP is trying
to force us out of business. And I am saying it without qualification or
apology the PPP wants to put every private Television station out of business
in this country and they have been carrying out this agenda a little at a time over
the past 10 years, I saw it and I told you it would happen, and it has; today no
television station is making any money except perhaps those who play 4 hours of
death announcements and birthday greetings a day.
This is how they did it, first they deliberately
allowed too many stations on the air after coming to power and that had the
effect of watering down the revenue of the private broadcasters, secondly they
started to use money from the consolidated fund i.e. money from your taxes, over
one billion dollars of it since coming to power to make NCN TV better than any
other station in terms of coverage and propaganda programming production
capability, then they allowed this same government station which was also receiving
grant aid from China, India, the British and the Japanese to stay in the advertising
marketplace and compete unfairly with privately owned stations undercutting
them for advertising, the full brutality of this blow to private enterprise came
when they merged GTV and GBC and started offering combined packages on radio
and on TV to make competition with them impossible since they hold the
monopoly in radio.
When the PNC marches the PPP goes
everywhere crying like babies about how bad the marching is doing the economy, and
I have to say this that we the Television Broadcasters in this country have
taken our medicine like men and don't come crying to you every week but let me
tell you, it has been a bitter dose and I am surprised that you the people who
enjoy the work we have done for you over the years have not spoken up for us
more loudly. As I said at the beginning, maybe it is our fault by not explaining
the situation more clearly before. And I want the international community to
listen.
As if there were not enough pressure
from the PPP government and their state owned media their mismanagement of the
Guyana economy has put this country in such an economic depression that big
companies have closed their doors, and those which are left unless they are
laundering money or dealing in drugs are struggling, Sterling Products for
example only made 52 million for its investors last year. DDL and Banks are
also not doing well either and have cut back on advertising drastically. I
don't want to make light of this grave situation but when you get so poor that
you can't even afford to buy some liquor to drown your sorrows then you really
deh bad. And all businesses are affected; all media workers and advertising
agencies are feeling the pressure. The situation is really bad in this country
right now and I am not sure if we can bear it.
So you will excuse me if I get a little
peeved when I see the major cause for our increasing poverty Mr. Jagdeo running
in like a knight in shining armour to save the day and buy the football rights
for us, and since the consolidated fund, our tax money, is paying for these
rights why give NCN alone the right to play it and not the other private
stations, you understand that if you pay the country rights for GUYANA then any
or all stations can play the soccer, you will forgive me if I get a little
peeved when this same NCN TV not happy that they already have the rights to
play the current cricket series gives priority to the cricket and plays the
football late at night or more obscenely interrupts the cricket coverage to
play the football as they did yesterday 22nd June, what kind of eye
pass is this to you the Guyanese public who are paying for these rights with
your taxes? you will forgive me if I hold the view that the PPP are so gung ho
to destroy private Broadcasting that that they have taken both the cricket and
the football which they cannot play effectively for you, thereby betraying the
most fundamental rules of broadcasting which is to function in the public's
interest, convenience and necessity just to shaft Vieira and others who
criticise them. I resigned from the CBU six years ago because I visualised this
day coming. Now I visualise no private TV stations 6 years from now if this
continues. If nothing else I have showed that I have vision in these
commentaries.
I don't want the rights for cricket or
Soccer now so I am not pleading my case here.
But you the public must wake up and see
who exactly you have voted into power in this country.
