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Editor's notebooks by Charles Harding
From
The Chronicle
of 04 Feb, 2000
It is difficult for journalists in small Caribbean societies to escape being daubed with political brushes whenever their opinion, analyses or the forthrightness of their interviews are unfavourable to one side or another.
That's why I can sympathise with Marpin's Morning Show Host Lennox Linton, a journalist from the region's top shelf, who has been politically branded, apparently because he avoids engaging in mincing neutrality on his television programmes.
I wear no political garbs, fly no party's banner, have no preference for one leader over another but I hardly expected to miss being labelled. It's one of the hazards of my job.
My interest in Dominica's politics is purely professional. My reports, commentaries and analyses based upon freedom of the Press and freedom of opinion - have always been and will continue to be without fear, favour or affection - responsible and objective as they could be.
I do not expect every Tom, Dick and Harry to agree with my views. I would be naïve to believe I could please everyone. I would even be stupid to think my assessments even judgement to be perfect at all times.
I have just completed covering my second successive elections in Dominica. I was 'Caribbean Editor' at The Nation newspaper in Barbados during the 1995 general election that brought about the first change of government in the Caribbean that year.
The reports, assessments and predictions filed to Bridgetown were for a regional audience following Caribbean political developments. This time it was essentially a Dominican readership, written from a different perspective but with the same objective: to help readers understand the issues and make informed decisions.
I thought the general election in 1995 was based on the need for a change. Dominicans, it seemed then, wanted a new vision and fresh faces in Government after 15 years of Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) rule.
Dame Eugenia Charles admitted as much in one of the finest interviews I've ever had with a Caribbean leader. She was stepping aside, she explained then, to give Dominicans something new.
The issues this year were vague. There may have been some logic in the call for a change of government, orchestrated in certain circles. But apart from the charges of corruption a common cry at election time in the Caribbean there was nothing to suggest, in my humble judgement, that the Dominica economy was in crisis, or that public confidence and morale had ebbed.
I have not been and still am not convinced that those who had opportunity to confront Edison James with the corruption accusations, used the occasions they were afforded to do other than defend their own positions and address parochial issues.
Apart from the ranting and raving and occasional mudslinging that have long characterised Caribbean politics, the political platforms were devoid of major national discussion expected from would-be Parliamentarians seeking to take this underdeveloped Caribbean island far into the 21st century.
I was expecting a higher level of public debate something that would have signalled a new dawn for Caribbean politics. Perhaps I was expecting too much of my Caribbean people.
Perhaps I am too fresh in Dominica to understand the nuances of the political language; to interpret expressions of the man in the street, discussions in the rum shops and barber salons.
Perhaps, as it has been suggested, the conversations were in Patois, which I do not yet understand. Or was it that the rum shop discussants, suspecting I was a stranger in their midst, set out to deceive.
What I heard on the streets was not reflected in the results of last Monday's poll.
But then, the Dominican electorate has spoken in most uncertain terms and that is what really matters not my misreading of trends.
Dominica's 2000 election results have been instructive to an outsider and the coalition government that will fashion this country's destiny, at least over the next five years.
One can only hope that Prime Minister Rosie Douglas and team do not commit the same errors of the outgoing administration; that government MPs do not become haughty and consider themselves masters, rather than servants of the people.
I hope, for Dominicans' sake, that rather than create even a semblance of a hostile environment that the new Administration listens more to fishermen and farmer's organisations and attends to the concerns of corporate Dominica.
It is my wish that Prime Minister Douglas does not engage in media bashing and that he would encourage local journalists, rather than hide and shudder in corners of fear, to write with purpose and conviction, to discuss this country's affairs without fear of reprisals and engage in analyses Dominicans are ready for in this 21st century.
I am entering my sixth month in Dominica, a country much unlike my native Barbados in terms of its typography and infrastructural development - a country with its own charms.
I am enjoying Dominican hospitality, which has not changed since I checked in at the Asta Hotel (obliterated by Hurricane David in 1979) on my first professional assignment here in 1970.
There has always been that friendly, welcoming smile and everybody even the politicians seem ready to share information about the country, its customs and its culture; to talk about theatre; to compliment the newspaper on its new look.
My colleagues at The Chronicle, Emile Lancelot, Mervin Matthew, Myriam Auguiste and freelancer Dionne Durand are making my job easier than I thought it would have been.
Dominicans at home and abroad are satisfied with the product we are delivering and have been making this known in their phone calls, letters and E-mail.
Lennox Linton was first to publicly congratulate the newspaper for its freshness of presentation on his television's Morning Show. The Tutor of the University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies, Edith Bellot, was one of our early callers after she was satisfied what she was reading, according to her, was no fluke.
Beverly Frances Moses sent an E-mail from Havana on January 17, congratulating us on the End of Year edition in 1999, which she described as the blast.
She wrote: You all highlighted the year's event which was very good. We the students up in Cuba needed that information. Anyway I would like to encourage you to continue the good work you have started . . .
Dave Rodney in the United States joined our growing fan club and complimented us on our general election coverage.
I have been very pleased with the reports and would like to single Dionne Durand for what I consider excellent reporting. I think she is a young reporter with tremendous potential and if nurtured and allowed to grow, she could become one of Dominica's more outstanding journalists, Rodney wrote in his E-mail of January 23.
We thank you for recognising the change we are bringing to the newspaper industry. My colleagues assure you what you see is only the beginning of better things to come.
We plan to redefine newspaper journalism in Dominica, give meaning and relevance and demonstrate there is nothing notional about the New Information Order.
It is our intention to regain the soul newspapers have lost to television.
We are working on a number of projects and by-products designed to service commerce and cater to the entire Dominican family.
We will not disappoint those who have faith in what we are attempting to do at The Chronicle, one of the Caribbean's oldest newspaper, celebrating its 91st birthday this year.
(Editor's note: This Notebook will be a once a month feature)
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