Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s recent remarks over a BBC report on Venezuelan migrants and the registration process here, along with his verbal war with the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to T&T, is unproductive.
No one can doubt the Prime Minister has good reason to be concerned about the BBC report.
To be clear, there were several shortcomings in the reportage. For example, the journalist focused on a single migrant family and sought to reflect this as the general experience of Venezuelans in T&T. He also focused on the protest outside the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain which was politically motivated and while it reflected the feelings of some T&T nationals, it did not reflect the feelings of the hundreds, even thousands of citizens who welcomed the initiative. One must ask, why did the reporter never speak to the Archbishop of Port-of-Spain, for example, who had championed the cause of the migrants even when it was unpopular and when no one, including the Government, appeared willing to listen to him?
The report also used images that sought to give the impression that there was a volatile stand-off between the security forces and the migrants, when we all know that the process was relatively incident-free.
The UK has little moral authority to speak on the treatment of migrants, as its history is replete with incidents of ill-treatment as the Windrush generation still struggling for recognition there could attest to.
The BBC has for years been used by the UK to promote its interest globally and while this paper is in no position to judge if this was just slack journalism or an attempt to promote a UK agenda, the fact is it also showed real weaknesses in the PM and his administration.
But having said all of that, there is a reason governments pursue diplomacy rather than verbal conflict in settling disputes.
What Dr Rowley will not see from this story is his Government’s refusal to respond to legitimate journalists when they have real questions. Journalists play an important role in informing the public from a position of impartiality. There is need for transparency and forthright communication from all levels of the Government when dealing with members of the media, as others mimic their leader.
The country needs open communication because gone are the days of when the doctor say so is so.