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President Ali dodged a question about plans to increase citizens’ spending power by asking reporters if they had applied for property
President Irfaan Ali
“How old are you? Where do you live? Do you own your own house? Applied for a housing plot? Well, sit down. You’re not participating in improving your own life… At 28, you should be making better life decisions.”
Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali responded to a series of questions from Kaieteur news reporters on Thursday after he was asked to outline how the Guyana government would increase the spending power of the people if his party is re-elected to power in the next regional and general elections.
The Head of State responded to the last question from a male reporter of this newspaper as he was about to conclude a press conference at State House in Georgetown. The President was specifically asked to explain the government’s plans to increase the spending power of Guyanese after the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is elected to power in the country, which is scheduled for 2025.
The issue comes as citizens have been complaining about the high cost of living in the country, where they struggle to make ends meet every day despite its rich oil and gas resources.
Ali seemed unprepared for the question and took a move familiar to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and not only dodged the question but also publicly humiliated the journalist.
“The government’s plan is to win the next election with a bigger margin,” the president said.
Asked how the government would improve citizens’ spending power if re-elected, Ali said: “We are constantly increasing the availability of resources, improving people’s lives and increasing people’s disposable income. I just gave the example of the housing scheme and how it is linked to increasing your disposable income.”
In his opening speech, the head of state mentioned the government’s housing plans and elaborated on how real estate values are rising.
Therefore, the president continued to ask the journalist about his age, where he lived and if he had a house. He even asked the young man if he had applied for a house, but when the 28-year-old replied that he had not, the head of state instructed: “Well, sit down. You are not involved in improving your life… At 28, you should make better life decisions.”
Since Ali held his press conference on Thursday, many people have shared clips of the president’s response to the question, accusing him of failing to address this critical issue.
Other BJP members, including Vice President Jagdeo, have also used this tactic in the past. In fact, government officials are known to be unresponsive to non-state journalists, who often ask unexpected and direct policy-related questions.
GPA president calls for an end to ‘unnecessary insults’
Meanwhile, President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Nazima Raghubir, in an invited comment, called for an end to the unnecessary vilification of media workers.
Raghubir, a senior journalist, said the GPA will make an official statement later this week.
However, she explained that the agency had received complaints from editors and journalists to address a number of incidents, including the bullying of a female journalist at Kaieteur News Agency on World Press Freedom Day.
The GPA chief said: “The bullying started at the Vice President’s press conference when he answered her questions and responded to Kaieteur News mistakenly publishing a photo depicting the businessman (who was not who they thought). The bullying then spread to social media commentator Mikhail Rodriguez, who posted the lady’s photo on social media and also bullied her.”
Raghubir added that another complaint was also filed by the National Communication Network (NCN) Linden manager, who is also a journalist for the radio channel. The journalist, along with a photographer, was verbally assaulted by a named opposition person at an event held in the area.
In addition, the president of the Guyana Press Association said there were complaints about the president’s attitude towards the media. “There were two specific incidents, one was with news source Svetlana Abrams, who is also an executive member of the Guyana Press Association, where the president was very aggressive in answering her questions, and it was notable that he would answer another journalist’s question after or before she had answered her question, and his answer was very different from the one he gave her.”
For this reason, the GPA president said his behavior was “very worrying.” She was keen to point out that all these incidents were listed because politicians seemed to follow the same “script, they think or they want to see the media and journalists as the enemy,” targeting journalists in very specific and aggressive ways.
In addition, Raghubir pointed out that the Press Association has received complaints that the purpose of the presidential press conference is to prevent media interviews, intimidate journalists from going deeper and questioning, and belittle journalists who are doing their job.
According to her, “The entire press conference itself was suspicious. The president’s press pass was issued and only two reporters from one media outlet were allowed in, which limited the investigation of serious issues.”
Raghubir singled out the head of state’s hiring of communications consultant Kit Nascimento as also questionable. She noted that during his interactions with the media, Nascimento had demonstrated that he was “hell-bent on intimidating and humiliating” the media.
“This issue-by-issue format is just ridiculous now because I don’t understand how you can have a functioning democracy when you can’t ask proper questions; you can’t get proper follow-up; you don’t have ministers who can talk to certain media outlets; your information commissioner is not doing his job and you’re still being bullied at the vice president’s press conference and being attacked for doing your job,” she explained.
Raghubir said the press conferences conducted by President Ali bore his contempt for the media. She pointed out that most of the journalists were senior members of the press and were respected by the public, who looked forward to their reports.
She therefore noted that “the President’s decision to try to dilute the press conference by engaging in a back-and-forth debate with Marcel of the Stabroek News, a reporter from the Guyana Times, and reporter Sherwin Belgrave of the Kaieteur News was a great insult to the media.”
Raghubir said that while the head of state demands respect, his actions and reactions show disrespect for media workers.
She said, “Unnecessary insults and belittling by the media must stop immediately. This cannot be the way Irfaan Ali wants to play in 2025.”
Raghubir noted that if the government continued to hold regular cabinet press conferences, the public would be better informed and the head of state would not need to be “condescending” as he did on Thursday.
“It’s very rude, it’s very disgusting, and I just want to say that the media has to keep doing their job, they have to keep digging, and they have to keep confronting all of these politicians because we are entering a very important period in this country,” she urged.
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