| – APNU’s Joe Harmon The radio frequencies is a natural resource of this nation and it has to be dealt with in a way which is most benefitting to the country, the view of Member of Parliament for the Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity, Joe Harmon.Harmon told Kaieteur News that he has looked at the legislation surrounding the Broadcast Act. According to him there is the need for some “serious’ amendments in the Act. Harmon told this publication that as soon as Parliament is completed with the 2013 budget, the matter will be raised in the National Assembly. According to Harmon, former president Bharrat Jagdeo had an “overbearing” hand in the country’s affairs.“Jagdeo was behaving as though the country’s assets were his own….more so, he acted outside of being President and out of his remit,” Harmon stated.Harmon also raised the issue of the members of the Broadcast Authority Board,Cheap NBA Jerseys Australia, and that its composition should also be reviewed.On Sunday, leader of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan,China Jerseys Wholesale, had told Kaieteur News that the main reason that the Jagdeo administration gave out radio frequency licences to friends, families and cronies was so that they could dominate the airwaves with their Propaganda. Ramjattan was at the time responding to questions about the process which Jamaica has taken to publicly auction off their frequencies.According to Ramjattan,Cheap NFL Jerseys, the idea which Jamaica has adopted is something which happens around the world. “What Jamaica did was to look for a means to earn revenue, but in Guyana they use the worst practices in their incestuous self,” Ramjattan said.The administration never sought to look at what was beneficial for the ordinary Guyanese, but what was beneficial for the “cabal”. He further told Kaieteur News that it would have been much better had the government auctioned off the radio frequencies and this would have created some balance in the distribution.Last week it was reported that Jamaica publicly indicated that it is preparing to auction some of these limited resources, which is the spectrum. Jamaica’s Spectrum Management Authority, similar to that of Guyana’s National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU),Jerseys Wholesale, has said it will be selling to the highest bidders two 700-megahertz (MHz) band licences to improve Internet penetration in that country.It will highlight how valuable Jamaica considers its spectrum, a resource that is jealously guarded worldwide by Governments because of the power of radio, TV and the internet.The issue of limited spectrum has also been a cause of much concern in Guyana after former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, used his executive powers to grant several persons, including his party’s newspaper, The Mirror, five frequencies to broadcast across the country. Representing Mirror is Dharamkumar Seeraj, a PPP Parliamentarian.This happened days before his Presidential term was due to end in November 2011 when General Elections were held.The move has widely been seen as carefully planned by Jadgeo and the ruling party to control the airwaves of Guyana. Jagdeo also granted five frequencies to his personal friend, Dr. Ranjisinghi “Bobby” Ramroop and another five to Omkar Lochan,Jerseys NFL Cheap, Permanent Secretary of Natural Resources Minister, Robert Persaud. Persaud happens to be the nephew-in-law of Jagdeo.The former President did not stop there. He also granted two television cable licences to close associates–Brian Yong and Vishok Persaud. Persaud is the son of the late former Government Parliamentarian and Agriculture Minister,Deion Sanders Falcons Jersey UK, Reepu Persaud, while Yong was a candidate for the ruling party during the 2011 elections. |
