Glenn Lall clutching at straws-Guyana Times hits back

Guyana Times notes with amusement the Tuesday editorial of the Kaieteur News which among other things made an outlandish claim that this newspaper is owned by President Bharrat Jagdeo. It is clear to us that the publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall is offended by the damning revelations in the WikiLeaks U. S. embassy cables that linked him with the criminal underworld and unveiled his murky past. While trying to undo the embarrassment caused by the revelations in the cables, Lall through his editorial is now pleading with Guyanese not to believe the disclosures made about him by the embassy to Washington, but to believe the selective and distorted extracts of the cables that he has been opportunistically publishing and treating as unchallengeable gospel. Self- proclaimed as sacred and a guardian of democracy here, Lall was described by U. S. officials as someone with a sketchy past who translated a shoe trading business and rumoured involvement with alien smuggling into a muckraking newspaper. “ He has a finger firmly on the pulse of Guyana’s underworld, which serves his media enterprise,” Benjamin Canavan wrote in one of his cables that was dispatched to Washington. While Guyana Times maintains that ownership of this newspaper does not reside with the president, we would gladly associate with President Jagdeo, whose dedicated service and tremendous contributions to Guyana are recognised internationally. The fact of the matter is that during President Jagdeo’s tenure, Guyana has made phenomenal progress in strengthening its economy, in improving socio- economic con ditions, in forging a more unified soci ety, and in having its voice heard and listened to in the global family of nations. For all this, President Jagdeo has earned the respect of the international community and the affection of the Guyanese people, including those of us at Guyana Times . And so, while clutching at straws as he now seeks to evade inevitable scorn, it would be most prudent for Lall, who has appointed himself as a moral arbiter, to explain himself to the Guyanese public and account for the damning revelations made about him in the U. S. embassy cables.