His Excellency is becoming impatient? Intolerant?
(And to think, to decide that I had reserved the description “petulant” exclusively for Doctor Bharrat Jagdeo during the latter years of his active presidency.
Petulance indicates “capricious ill humour;” irritability, peevishness; being fretful, fractious and querulous. Dare I now assign this description to our current matured 70-plus urbane Officer-President D. Arthur Granger?)
As I left for a brief overseas holiday exactly one month ago, two reasons caused me to attempt this type of creative, fictionalized column. One was the fact that our current His Excellency does not seem to favour regular full-blown press conferences. The second “inspiration” was when His Excellency, upon being asked whether he would still take along his errant Press Officer to the United Nations, “scolded” the well-meaning reporter with: “That’s enough on that issue!”
Real commander-like, that was that for him. (De reportah was being too fass!)
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The President, the Media, the comrades
So come with me as I concoct two scenarios – the President’s terse, almost strident and impatient responses at a press conference and interacting with concerned party members at a PNC group meeting in South Georgetown.
(You decide when the questions are coming from a professional journalist or a party comrade.)
Question: Mr President earlier during the day – the evening of which you made the GECOM unilateral appointment – your government also announced the unilateral salary increases for public servants and the composition of the Local Government Commission. Did you purposely plan any distraction? Answer: Nonsense! Government employees deserve the increases that we can afford at this time. These increases do not prevent the continued collective bargaining process.
Question: But will the Commission be allowed to function independently as central government will always control the purse strings? Answer: Funds are allocated to the Regions from the Budget. The LGC has specific mandates. You must watch to see how the PPP “co-operates”.
Question: Mr President, I’ll not raise the issue of your GECOM’s Head’s age, but are you not worried that legal challenges could stymie his work? Even delay elections? Answer: Do you know that Mr Jagdeo’s lists had persons in their eighties and late seventies? And I would hope that the Chancellor and Chief Justice would be seized with the vital national implications of such litigation…