Madeira was the head of news and current affairs at Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) at the time and was forced by the insurrectionists to announce the coup to the nation.
He said people had become dissatisfied with the content of the news, which he noted was heavily influenced by orders of the executive.
Madeira said staff in the TTT news room tried to ignore the political interference, which included a directive that any event involved Prime Minister A.N.R. Robinson should get top priority.
He recalled one incident where TTT had a directive to “give prominence” to a news story with Robinson officiating at the opening a standpipe in a rural area.
He said that story ran for 10 minutes, which upset him. He added that people also called the newsroom to complain.
He said at that time the public was fed up and disgusted with the Government noting that although they accepted NAR’s anti-corruption platform at the 1986 general election, by 1990 they were more interested in the economic hardship which faced them.
Madeira also suggested that the breakup of the ruling party contributed significantly to the problem in the society. “There was confusion around the dismantling and disheveling of the NAR which really started it and we got a lot of telephone calls,” he said.
Madeira said people wanted the Government to resolve the economic problem and the friction within the NAR, instead of pointing fingers at the former PNM regime.
“They were saying you have this tremendous mandate, but you are spending a lot of your time on the previous government. You are 33 to 3. Get on with it,” he said.
“They just got quite tired of it,” he said adding that people felt the Government was not listening to them.
Madeira also spoke of the anti-corruption debate which was taking place at the Parliament in the days leading up to the 1990 insurrection.
No comments:
Post a Comment