I read where Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had lost her cool when she was pressed to an­swer ques­tions about the SIA ap­point­ment fi­as­co. I wrote a cou­ple of weeks ago about the PM es­tab­lish­ing the cor­rect pro­to­col to an­swer ques­tions on se­ri­ous is­sues af­fect­ing the coun­try.

The fol­low­ing guide­lines should be adopt­ed by the PM when­ev­er she has to deal with the me­dia:

n Im­por­tant is­sues must be dealt with in a con­trolled en­vi­ron­ment as an of­fi­cial news con­fer­ence. In such a con­fer­ence the PM takes ques­tions from those jour­nal­ists whose names ap­pear on the list to ask ques­tions. In ad­di­tion, she should have pri­or knowl­edge of the ques­tions. The PM de­cides the or­der of the ques­tions. At no time should a jour­nal­ist who is not on the au­tho­rised list pose a ques­tion.

n The PM must not re­spond to ques­tions on se­ri­ous is­sues when­ev­er she is at­tend­ing a civ­il func­tion. She must re­fer the jour­nal­ist to a news con­fer­ence in the not too dis­tant fu­ture.

n Where are Andy John­son and Sasha Mo­hammed in all of this? Some­body needs to take charge of news con­fer­ences. A com­mu­ni­ca­tion team needs to ad­vise the PM about what to say. What not to say. How to say it. What tone to use when­ev­er she is an­swer­ing tough ques­tions. We are not a ba­nana re­pub­lic. Let us take a page from Amer­i­can Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma. You dare not ask the Pres­i­dent im­por­tant ques­tions when he is at­tend­ing a civ­il cer­e­mo­ny. The Press Sec­re­tary and the the State of the Union ad­dress would an­swer all per­ti­nent ques­tions. In Amer­i­ca they have stan­dards. We are now learn­ing. I want to end by mak­ing a com­ment about the SIA fi­as­co that on­ly demon­strates that the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment is still learn­ing.

Dr Kei­th Row­ley is out of place to ask for the SIA post to be ad­ver­tised. You do not ad­ver­tise a post as sen­si­tive as the SIA di­rec­tor. The Gov­ern­ment con­scripts peo­ple who are on the same page as the Prime Min­is­ter. Did the de­posed em­per­or ad­ver­tise the var­i­ous posts held by the in­fa­mous Calder Hart? Then why should the Prime Min­is­ter ad­ver­tise the post of the SIA di­rec­tor? Did Pres­i­dent Oba­ma ad­ver­tise the posts of di­rec­tors of the CIA and FBI or the De­fence Sec­re­tary? No, such posts are not ad­ver­tised. They are based on who knows you and your per­son­al track record. A re­tired judge would make a per­fect SIA di­rec­tor. Such a judge would be con­ver­sant with the law as it re­lates to in­ter­cep­tion of clas­si­fied da­ta. So Row­ley, let us move on.

John Jes­samy

Fyz­abad