Fooling the people

This week I observed just how desperate the authorities are to control everything and ensure that information that filters to the public is according to their version of events.

I was alerted by a number of calls since last Saturday morning that the Indian construction workers at the Savoy Resort and Spa site were complaining of not being paid and were refusing to work. Finally the situation got out of hand on Monday afternoon and they converged on the street to manifest their anger.

I got to the Beau Vallon police station in time to witness the negotiations between the workers’ representatives, the Indian High Commission officials, the Ministry of Employment and Human Resources (ML&RH), the developers and the Police.

Just like a police investigator at a crime scene, a journalist’s role whilst covering a story will usually make sure to cover all angles. That means talking to all sources involved and we tried to do just that on Monday. 

The police was happy to declare to the media that they were on top of the situation having successfully convinced the protestors to leave the road and to sit peacefully inside the station compound. They also allowed the media to interact with the developers and reassured us that the officials from the ML&RH were on their way to Beau Vallon and will give a press briefing. But one group was out of bounds and the police will interfere each time we tried to have a word with them – the Indian protestors! 

The striking workers were the reason we were all there that afternoon and their voices were imperative to be heard. But the Police would have none of it and said allowing the media to talk to them would only agitate them and disturb the peace they had already established. The workers were then escorted by the Police back to their compound and kept inside by the watchful Nepalese security. 

  

The police attitude to me was very clear for one reason - silence the voice of the protestors and protect the image of Government. To any fair-minded individual, this attitude is wrong. We need to hear the whole story and not just the official point of view. For far too long, we have been fed well rehearsed lines only to conceal the truth. This cannot go on for much longer, for as Bob Marley put it, “You can fool some people sometimes but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”