The continued picket demonstration carried out by private media operatives and concerned supporters, against the glaring disparity in and discriminatory manner of distribution of radio licences, was yesterday taken to State House, Main Street. The protest action attracted the support of the Alliance For Change (AFC).
\nAFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan stated that his presence there was in solidarity with those who were denied radio licences for no decent or lawful reason.
\nRamjattan labeled former President Bharrat Jagdeo\u2019s granting of the radio licences as deceptive, since it is a violation of the agreement made between him and the then opposition leader, Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
\nThe attorney at law outlined that Jagdeo and Hoyte had agreed that radio frequencies would have been allocated, only under a new dispensation.
\nThe former People\u2019s Progressive Party (PPP) executive member informed that during the tripartite budget talks, the joint Parliamentary Opposition sought, as a priority, to address the issues of the unfair distribution of radio licences, but got no favourable response from President Donald Ramotar.
\nAccording to Ramjattan, even though the radio licence issue was second on a list of 11 demands, the President unequivocally dismissed any possibilities for the distributed licences to be revoked.
\nAn obviously peeved Ramjattan disclosed that the President\u2019s position was backed by his two advisors: Gail Teixeira and \u201cstrongman\u201d Dr Roger Luncheon.
\nRamjattan noted that all that was said by the government at the tripartite meeting summed up to a concrete position that \u201cThey (the government) are not going to rescind anything.\u201d
\nThe AFC leader opined that Ramotar\u2019s position to leave everything as it is, is simply a perpetuation of the deception that Jagdeo portrayed.
\nRamjattan stated that at the meeting the President said that the licences granted were granted on meritorious grounds. However, he noted that \u201cWe (the opposition) do not accept that explanation, that\u2019s why I am glad this demonstration is in front his (Ramotar\u2019s) house. But I don\u2019t want it to get nasty.\u201d
\nThe political leader hinted at court action. He noted as well that the opposition plans to address the issue in the National Assembly. \u201cWe cannot condone this\u2026We are going to constantly harangue them to revoke and redistribute those licences.\u201d
\nAt that point, Ramjattan restated his opinion about deception and expressed that he was proud to be part of a protest that makes a statement about the issues of deception and discrimination in Guyana.
\n\u201cThis thing about giving friends and favourites our national resources stinks\u2026 and it stinks to the high heavens,\u201d Ramjattan stressed.
\n\u201cWe as politicians have limited powers. We can only pass motions but we still need the government for the implementation of such. We have to stand up for what is right, but the AFC believes in non-violent and legitimate political stances.\u201d
\n\u201cStop grabbing Guyana for your friends and family\u201d; \u201cOur constitutional rights are being violated\u201d; \u201cWe demand equal rights and justice\u201d; \u201cThis lawlessness must stop and \u201cDr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Jagdeo has overstepped his boundaries\u201d, were some of the sentiments reflected on the placards that protesters held high.
\nKaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall, who was again part of the protest action, reiterated that the fight will continue against the injustice perpetrated by Jagdeo. He too emphasised that the airwaves are a national resource and radio frequencies should have been dealt equally.
\n\u201cGuyana shouldn\u2019t have a one-sided media, and we (private media operatives and concerned supporters) can\u2019t stomach what the government is doing. This country needs independent voices and that must be clearly understood. I don\u2019t think the people of this country really understand what is going on with respect to these
\nlicences,\u201d Lall said.
\n\u201cThis radio licence issue is not a discriminatory act against me alone, but a discriminatory act against the entire country. The private media houses that have been discriminated against will continue until (President) Donald Ramotar rectifies this issue. We will not back down. It is a very serious matter, but I am really surprised that the opposition has been taking this issue so lightly.\u201d
\nSocial activist and newspaper columnist Frederick Kissoon said that he noted the government\u2019s firm position not to budge, but stated that the people will take to the streets constantly, prepared to fight the government on the issue until the end, \u201cour job is to stay in the street and confront them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The continued picket demonstration carried out by private media operatives and concerned supporters, against the glaring disparity in and discriminatory manner of distribution of radio licences, was yesterday taken to State House, Main Street. The protest action attracted the support of the Alliance For Change (AFC). AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan stated that his presence there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latestnews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/image001-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-1bb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4539,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions\/4539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}