The terrorist murder of 11 people in a Guyanese village a fortnight ago underlines the worsening social, security, and even political situation in that Caribbean Community (Caricom) member state, which the administration of President Bharrat Jagdeo shows little capacity to control.

No one has been able to offer specific reasons for the turn of events in Guyana. What is clear, however, is that the attitude of the Jagdeo administration is making the problem far more difficult to resolve. And that for us who invested much hope in President Jagdeo, when he came to office in 1999, succeeding Janet Jagan, is particularly painful.

It was expected that a young man - President Jagdeo is only 44 - with fresh ideas, would not only transcend the race-based politics of the past. But, importantly, we hoped that he would reinvigorate Guyana with a culture of democracy and openness which were so badly trampled during the years of Forbes Burnham and the People's National Congress. On the latter count, President Jagdeo flattered only to deceive.

The greatest manifestation of this failure has been the effort of the Guyana government to starve the Stabroek News newspaper in a misguided attempt to stifle criticism and manufacture consent.

As good newspapers are supposed to be, Stabroek News is feisty and independent. It takes seriously that unwritten compact that the free press in liberal democracies strike with the communities in which they operate: to be the people's watchdog to ensure good governance. That often makes the lives of people who hold high office, and supposed repositories of the public's trust, rather uncomfortable. Mr Jagdeo and his People's Progressive Party (PPP) have not been immune.

What, though, is disconcerting is the crass response of the administration. Since November 2006, government ministries and agencies, as well as state-owned companies, have ceased advertising in Stabroek News, ostensibly on the grounds of economics. The boycott has been steadily extended.

But Strabroek News is Guyana's largest circulating and most popular newspaper. So, the Jagdeo government would have us believe that it is better economics to advertise in newspapers, including the state-owned Guyana Graphic, with less circulation.

The behaviour of the Jagdeo government is gross and cynical. It is wrong on three clear counts:

it is a waste of public resources in that it does not seek the best value for money;

it is using public resources for private political action, which is inherently corrupt;

it is an attack on freedom of the press.

If the PPP and Mr Jagdeo were spending their own money, they would have an argument to do with it what they may, including advertising - or not advertising - in any medium they wished. That, though, is not the case.

Indeed, the action of the Guyana government to punish a perceived errant newspaper by withholding advertising is a clear violation of the Declaration of Chapultapec, of which President Jagdeo is a signatory.

As the Media Association and Press Association of Jamaica said in their joint statement, last week, it is still not too late for the Guyana government to redeem itself. We commit the thought to President Jagdeo.

Solutions to Guyana's problems are more like to emerge from robust debate than manufactured consensus.