Mudslinging dominates major parties press conferences

The major parties, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), have held many press conferences throughout the past year. Valuable time from these engagements has been used to engage in political mudslinging against the other side.

While this political insult-throwing would not take up the majority of the time in an engagement, it is perhaps the only prevailing trope throughout all of them.
These are the two parties who are proven to hold considerable political sway over the voting populace, and the following is a report of the manner in which they engage the public when discussing each other.

The PNCR decided to hold weekly press conferences during 2019. The structure of these engagements consists of a prepared statement that is read by a member of the party. The media corps would congregate at Congress Place at 11 am every Friday to hear the reading of the statement which is usually sent by email to media houses after the engagement.

It is typical for these statements to contain language blasting the PPP’s presidential candidate Mohamed Irfaan Ali as deceptive or corrupt.
The Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo also faces mudslinging from the PNCR, with his tenure as president once being described as freakism. The party members would constantly lambaste the PPP no matter the issue of the day.

Unfortunately for the press corps, they are told that questions may only be asked about the contents of the prepared press statement. This rule persists despite there be pressing issues which deserve answers.

Reporters have attempted to ask questions unrelated to the statements, but pressing nonetheless, and have been interrupted and shut down. Only seldom does a high profile Minister attend one of these engagements and venture to answer reporters’ questions, despite the topic. However, even some of those high profile Ministers evade questioning.

Minister of State Dawn Hastings, who is said to be the most powerful woman in Guyana, has made several appearances at these conferences. Yet, she has refused to answer questions not related to the press statements on repeated occasions.

On the PPP side, reporters may ask questions on any issue. But the mudslinging from the Opposition Leader is muchmore frequent. It is common for him to level accusations of corruption against Ministers of Government and other public officials, but it is very uncommon for him to venture to provide proof.

Even in situations when he does back up his words, the documents have failed to make a convincing case.
For example, Jagdeo’s famous land-grabbing claims made earlier this year fell through when it turned out that most of the acreage he mentioned was only being returned to their rightful owners.

Furthermore, the High Court is set to assess damages owed to Charles Ceres by another newspaper that was found guilty of misinformation, for its reporting on Jagdeo’s land-grabbing claims. Kaieteur News is currently still in litigation.

Describing this Government as the most corrupt in Guyana’s history, Jagdeo has made accusations as serious as accusing Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson, who he calls ‘sticky fingers’, of pocketing public funds.
Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, is often made fun of by Jagdeo, who alludes to Ramjattan being a drinker of alcohol. If he is responding to a statement by Ramjattan, he may joke that the Minister made the statement drunkenly.

Jagdeo discriminates against Government officials for their age, describing Government as a “geriatric” cabal. The Opposition Leader has also grown accustomed to calling officials insulting names or describing them as mentally ill.
The PPP’s presidential candidate Irfaan Ali has said that he will not engage in gutter politics. Jagdeo has made no similar commitment.